India's newspapers showing signs of slump

English-language titles, in particular, are feeling the pinch. India's number one English daily, the Times of India, with 13.3 million readers, which had its record-performing month just last October, has seen advertising profits fall by 25 per cent. Compare this to India's most read local-language newspaper, Dainik Jagran, which has a nationwide readership of 55 million. Hindi titles, in fact, claim the top four places and are then followed by newspapers in Tamil, Marathi, Bengali and Telugu before the 11th placed Times of India.

Although, according to Newswatch Desk's Indian Readership Survey for 2008, the Times remains far ahead of its closest English-language rival, the Hindustan Times, which has 6.3 million readers. 

The English-language group of newspapers, however, contrasts significantly to India's growing regional and ethnic market with "local content in local languages."

Media expert and head of KPMG's information, communication and entertainment division, Rajesh Jain, was keen to draw a distinction between local and English-language newspapers, pointing out that the Times commands up to 9 times more for advertising per-reader than the leading Hindi paper and 13 times more than the next major language newspaper.

"The English language media commands the maximum pricing power because it's aspirational," said Jain.

Nevertheless, the Australian said Jain remains optimistic, given that India's younger demographic is seeing its income steadily grow, predicting that "print media will grow by about 9 per cent a year to reach annual revenues of about $7.7 billion by 2013."  

Some, however, question the ethical approach of some newspapers, with Daily News and Media recently printing a half-page ad at the top of its front page and, although there is no suggestion that DNA has done anything wrong, some titles are being accused of running content in exchange for payment. Shishi Joshi, who last March left his post as editorial director at Mid-Day to pursue other interests, has spoken out about compromising editorial values, says the Australian.

Overall, India's newspaper landscape is expected to fair better than most as the global economy continues towards its downward trend. After China, India has the largest newspaper industry in the world and, although the Australian is right to be concerned about "its highly fragmented nature" - the consequence of its multiple-language society - it may be a little harsh to say this "works against productivity, quality and innovation." On the contrary, one hopes the proliferation of local language newspapers will, at the very least, eventually lead to an improvement in literacy levels across the country; Jain expects figures will at least double within the next ten years.

Besides, it is India's "fragmented" market where foreign investors are likely to be tempted, with regional print media offering potential for growth. In particular, investors may wish to look at the online sites of some of the country's newspapers given they have been previously criticised for failing to develop on the Web. 


Sources: Australian.com , Newswatch