India witnessing print media boom: RNI reportThursday, June 15, 2006,

India witnessing print media boom: RNI reportThursday, June 15, 2006,14:45 [IST]

New Delhi, June 15: The Fourth Estate in India is booming, says an official report on the state of press in the country.



Despite tough competition from Television and other electronic media, the print sector claimed a substantial share in the information space in the country registering 1948 new newspapers and over two crore increase in circulation in 2004-05.


Hindi and English language publications continued to lead both in number and circulation, followed by Bengali, Gujarati, Urdu and Marathi, said the latest report of the Registrar of Newspaper of India.

It was also noticed that regional language newspapers were leading both in number and circulation in all major States.

Hindustan Times, an English daily published from Delhi, was the largest circulated single edition daily.

It was followed by Ananda Bazar Patrika, a Bengali daily published from Kolkata. The Times of India, an English daily also published from New Delhi came third. However, the paper, having eight editions with a combined circulation of 27,71,669 copies came first among multi-edition dailies.

Dainik Jagran and Dainik Bhaskar(both Hindi) came second and third.

Among states, Uttar Pradesh was leading by publishing the largest numbers of newspapers(1385), followed by Delhi (1029), Maharashtra (646), Rajasthan (598) and West Bengal (559).

However, the national capital pushed its neighbouring state behind in the matter of circulation. It recorded a circulation off 2,65,01,569 copies as gainst 2,62,85,541 copies in Uttar Pradesh.

Maharashtra retained its third position with 1,59,59,124 copies.

A notable feature was that Orissa achieved the distinction of publishing newspapers in 17 major languages.Delhi came next with 13, Maharashtra 12, Kerala nine and Karnataka with eight.

Uttar Pradesh published the maximum number of newspapers in a single language--1155 in Hindi.

The report said, ''The press has proved that it can withstand the challenges of globalisation. In particular, the vibrant growth of the regional language papers reflects a growing demand among the readers with the spread of literacy and education,'' As on March 31, 2005, there were 60,413 registered newspapers on record as against 58,469 at the end of March 2004.

The total circulation of newspapers increased from 13,30,87,588 copies in 2003-04 to 15,67,19,209 copies in 2004-05.

The number of newspapers submitting annual statements also increased to 7225 from 5591 during the year.

The highest numbers of newspapers were published in Hindi (3265), followed by English (873), Bengali (492), Gujarati (477), Urdu (403) and Marathi (329).

In circulation, Hindi newspapers continued to lead with 6,70,35,756, followed by English with 2,72,90,601 copies. Gujarati Press with 83,52,093 copies came third.

Urdu and Malayalam language press closely followed with 81,09,935 and 76,91,166 copies respectively.

During 2004-05, 1948 new newspapers were registered. However, four newspapers also ceased publication.

The majority of Indian newspapers were periodicals.

Circulation details were available from 5351 periodicals which totaled 7,74,76,070 copies.

Among periodicals Rishi Prasad, Hindi monthly from Gandhi Nagar, topped with a circulation of 11,37,050 copies, while Saras Salil, Hindi fortnightly, published from Delhi came second with a circulation of 10,53,119 copies.

Among language Dailies, Hindi lead with 799 newspapers followed by 181 in English. The languages that published more than 100 daily newspapers were Marathi (127), Urdu (162) and Telugu (110).

Circulation-wise, Hindi Daily Press maintained its dominance with 3,37,73,557 copies. English Dailies followed with a circulation of 1,07,71,169 copies.

Uttar Pradesh had the largest number of daily newspapers (285), followed by Maharashtra (197). Daily newspapers are published from all the States.

However, no circulation details were made available from the Union Territories of Andaman&Nicobar Islands, Dadra&Nagar Haveli and Lakshadweep.




UNI