It is often believed that with the growth of the Television and the internet the print media would be sidelined. However, in India we have seen the circulation of newspapers grow. New technologies have helped boost the production and circulation of newspapers. A large number of glossy magazines have also made their entry into the market.
The reasons for the growth in Indian newspapers are many.
1.There is a rise in the number of literate people who are migrating to cities. The Hindi daily ‘Hindustan’ in 2003 printed 64,000 copies of their Delhi’s edition, which jumped dramatically in 2005, to 425,000. The reason was that of Delhi’s population of one crore and forty seven lakh, 52% had come from the Hindi belt of the two states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Of this, 47% have come from a rural background and 60% of them were less than 40 years of age.
2. The need of the readers in the small towns and villages are different from that of the cities and the Indian language newspapers cater to those needs. Dominant Indian language newspapers such as Malayala Manorama and the Eenadu launched the concept of local news in a significant manner by introducing district and whenever necessary, block editions. Dinathanthi-, another leading Tamil newspaper, had always used simplified and colloquial language.
3.The Indian language newspapers have adopted advanced printing technologies and also attempted supplements, pull outs, and literary and nice booklets.
4.Marketing strategies have also marked the Dainik Bhaskar group’s growth as they carry out consumer contact programmes, door- to-door surveys, and research. Thus, modem mass media has to have a formal structural organization.
- While English newspapers, often called National Dailies’, circulate across regions, vernacular newspapers have vastly increased their circulation in the states and the moral interland. In order to compete with the electronic media, newspapers, especially English language newspapers have on the one hand reduced prices and on the other hand brought out editions from multiple centres.
- Change in the role of newspaper production-role of technology.
- Many feared that the rise in electronic media would lead to a decline in the circulation of print media. This has not happened. Indeed it has expanded. This process has often involved cuts in prices and increasing dependence on the sponsors of advertisements who in turn have a larger say in the content of newspapers.
- Newspapers have become a consumer product and as long as numbers are big, everything is up for sale.