Future of printed newspapers in
India lies in vernacular domain
Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2014—world’s largest continuous survey of media usage,
product consumption and ownership—reveals a robust market for printed newspapers
in India. This is in spite of the invasion of internet and the call by industry stakeholders
to restructure the existing revenue model. The moot question though is: How much of
this growth will be driven by vernacular language newspaper? Thanglenhao Haokip from
All About Newspapers looks into this future prospect.
Let’s look at some industry figures to
understand the prospects of printed
newspapers in India. According to
the IRS survey, Hindi continues to occupy
the pride of place in the pecking order
of vernacular newspapers, with the top
three being Dainik Jagran (16.63 million),
Hindustan (14.74 million), Dainik Bhaskar
(13.83 million). Regional editions are close
behind, with only one English language
newspaper, The Times of India (7.59 million)
in top 10 and two, including Hindustan
Times (4.51 million), in top 19.
Another report on global media outlook by
PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) forecasts a
similar growth story for India. The Indian
newspaper market, according to the global
report, is estimated to be growing at a
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of
7.5 percent in 2015 through 2018, next
only to China (8.3 percent CAGR).
A previous report by PwC in 2011 had
predicted that the Indian entertainment
and media industry would continue on its
double-digit growth path, clocking Rs 1,199
billion worth of cumulative growth at 13.2
percent CAGR by 2015; it did and today
it’s already 2016 and the market continues
to remain robust. And what’s more, about
half of this growth has been driven by the
newspaper industry.
Hindi newspapers rule
Quartz India quoted a report by
India Ratings and Research saying
that vernacular or regional language
newspapers will grow at 10-12 percent by
2017, which will be higher than the English
language papers. The print media industry,
according to the report, is worth Rs 30,000
crore, and Hindi is still the ‘king’ of the
industry. The percentage of
Hindi newspapers in print
segment of the news media
industry is nearly 40 percent,
with English editions standing
in far second with only 15
percent.
To put things in perspective,
English and Hindi together
account for more than 55 percent share of
the print media market. And the remaining
45 percent is shared among the regional
newspapers, distributed among Malayalam,
Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada
and others (6.96 percent), in that particular
order. However, if one includes Hindi in
the vernacular list, the share of vernacular
language newspaper goes up to as much
as 84 percent.
Future perfect
Now in an industry worth Rs 30,000 crore,
84 percent is a huge revenue; and this just
goes to show that the future of
vernacular newspapers will remain
extremely positive in India at least
for the next few years to come.
And the growth in the newspaper
industry will be driven by vernacular
and regional newspapers.
Observing the global slowdown in
newspaper circulation, international
media stalwart Magda Abu-Fadil
wrote in 2013 in Huffington Post,
“Newspapers are on the wane and
print is heading for extinction. Newspapers
have found a new life and print is becoming
creative….Taking the industry’s pulse is a
tricky affair.”
Demographic advantage
Vernacular/language newspaper space in
India surely has the demographic advantage,
but it needs to be creative and innovative
in the way news are being delivered and
consumed, if it wants to convince the growing
number of literate and educated population
of the country – the aspirational and social
climber – who might otherwise chose to
read the English language newspapers in
the future. The increasing penetration of
internet has opened up a new frontier in the
way news is consumed; but the challenge
is to keep engaging with readers through
ethical reportage and personalised content.
In fact, the vernacular newspaper space is
being seized by sensationalised reporting
and ‘ad is king’ credo, without much regard
for content. In a consumer driven market,
customers are the king; similarly, in mass
media, particularly in news media, content
is the new king.
Besides, vernacular newspapers are fighting
a new battle of attrition called digitisation.
India has over 200 million internet users,
according to a report released in 2014 by
the Internet and Mobile Association of India
(IAMAI), not all of whom are active users
though. “There is every reason to believe
that they will turn into active users in the
near future,” mentioned Nilotpal Chakravarti,
associate vice-president, IAMAI.
Need for a wise move
In a country like India, with over 1.2 billion
people, the number of internet users is a
miniscule minority. According to a TNN
report, the rate of internet penetration
in India is about 16 percent only. Even
though the vernacular newspaper market
is showing positive trends, the real
challenge is a bit more complicated
than what the industry figures will
make us believe, especially with
the advancement of breakthrough
innovations in technology. The name
of the game, therefore, is innovation
and more innovation, both in terms
of product and content.
