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I. GENERAL REVIEW

1.1.1. In a democratic set up, it is important that all the citizens have the right to information. The news regarding the happenings within and outside the country has to be disseminated to the people. In the past, the print media shouldered the responsibility of disseminating the news. But, today with the growth of information technology, audio and visual media are in the field with instant and wide coverage. We thought that the advent of information technology would affect the print media. But, it didn�t happen; the statistics also shows that no technology can beat the print media, which always finds its own level.

1.1.2. The print media has responded to the new changes and challenges with its modernization. They have accepted the information technology, which resulted in better coverage with great speed and affordable price. The readership of newspapers is growing. The statistics also shows that the people prefer their regional language newspapers and that is why the regional newspapers are venturing out to bring editions from other cities where there is sizeable population of the respective language.

1.1.3. The publishers under Section 19D of the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, are required to submit Annual Statements to the Registrar of Newspapers for India. These Annual Statements are the principal source of data for compilation of this Report. All publishers do not submit their Annual Statements. Hence, this report cannot be treated as comprehensive. It can give only a broad overview on the general trend of the Indian Press based on the number and circulation of the newspapers. Since, the data is based on the number of annual statements of the year 2005-06 and these can only be termed as claimed circulation figures. It is worth mentioning that by authorizing the Regional Offices of other media units of the Ministry and the offices of the District Information Officers through out the country, to collect the annual statements, their number has shown a significant increase.

1.1.3. During 2005-06, 2074 new newspapers were registered. Four newspapers ceased publication. As on 31^st March 2006, there were 62,483 registered newspapers on record as against 60,413 at the end of March 2005. The total circulation of newspapers increased from 15,67,19,209 copies in 2004-05 to 18,07,38,611 copies in 2005-06. The number of newspapers submitting annual statements also increased to 8512 from 7225 during the year.

ANALYSIS OF DAILY NEWSPAPERS

1.2.1. As per the annual statements received during 2005-06, the number of dailies being published in the country was 2130. Their claimed circulation figure was 8,88,63,048 copies, 12.93% higher than that the previous year. Hindi had 942 dailies claiming a circulation of 7,66,98,490 copies, while 201 English dailies claimed 3,41,06,816 copies. (Chapter 3 Table 3.5)

1.2.2. There were 39 Tri/Biweeklies with a circulation of 5,66,198 copies, compared to 40 with a total circulation of 5,53,873 in 2004-05. (Chapter 3 Table 3.5)

1.2.3. 900 daily newspapers provided information on their working and organization, the analysis of which can be seen in Chapter VI.

ANALYSIS OF PERIODICALS

1.3.1. The majority of Indian newspapers were periodicals. Circulation details were available from 6343 periodicals which totaled 9,13,09,365 copies. Out of these, 3428 were weeklies, 955 fortnightlies, 1471 monthlies, 219 quarterlies, 49 annuals and 221 of other periodicities. (Chapter 7 Table 7.3)

1.3.2. Circulation of periodicals increased from 7,74,76,070 copies during 2004-05 to 9,13,09,363 copies in 2005-06. Weeklies were leading with 5,05,80,648 copies, followed by monthlies (2,11,36,710), fortnightlies (1,23,09,948), quarterlies (15,52,138) and annuals (29,81,256), (Chapter 7 Table 7.2)

LANGUAGE-WISE ANALYSIS

1.4.1. Newspapers were registered in English and 22 main languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. Newspapers were also registered in 100 other languages including dialects and a few foreign languages.

1.4.2. As per the data from Annual Statements received, the highest numbers of newspapers were published in Hindi (4131), followed by English (864), Gujarati (775), Urdu (463) Bengali (445), and Marathi (328). (Chapter 3. Table 3.5)

1.4.3. In circulation, Hindi newspapers continued to lead with 7,66,98,490 copies followed by English with 3,41,06,816 copies. Gujarati Press with 98,44,710 copies came third. Urdu and Malayalam language press closely followed with 92,17,892 and 82,06,227 copies respectively. (Chapter 3. Table 3.2)

1.4.4. Among language Dailies, Hindi lead with 942 newspapers followed by 201 in English. The languages that published more than 100 daily newspapers were Urdu (191), Telugu (147) Marathi (130) and Gujarati (100). Circulation-wise, Hindi dailies maintained its dominance with 3,76,42,520 copies. English Dailies followed with a circulation of 1,29,14,581 copies. (Chapter 3. Table 3.5)

STATE-WISE ANALYSIS

1.5.1. During 2005-06, the largest numbers of newspapers were published from Uttar Pradesh (1913), followed by Delhi (1133), Gujarati (817), Rajasthan (742), Maharashtra (642) and West Bengal (505). (Chapter 2. Table 2.2)

1.5.2. Uttar Pradesh topped in total circulation, with 3,32,91,882 in 2005-06, followed by Delhi with 3,06,03,048 copies. Maharashtra retained its third position with 2,04,72,8281,59,59,124 copies. (Chapter 3. Table 3.3)

1.5.3. Uttar Pradesh had the largest number of daily newspapers (384), followed by Maharashtra (206). Daily newspapers are published from all the States. However, no circulation details were made available from the Union Territory of Lakshadweep. (Chapter 2. Table 2.2)

1.5.4. Dailies from Uttar Pradesh with a total circulation of 1,34,92,557 copies were at the top, followed by Maharashtra with 1,05,37,174 and Delhi 88,08,045 copies. (Chapter 3. Table 3.5)

1.5.5. A notable feature was that Orissa achieved the distinction of publishing newspapers in 17 major languages. Delhi and Maharashtra came next with 11, Kerala 9 and Gujarat with 6. Uttar Pradesh published the maximum number of newspapers in a single language i.e., 1608 in Hindi. Other states with notable number of language newspapers were Rajasthan 701 in Hindi, Delhi 594 in Hindi, Gujarat 741 in Gujarati, West Bengal 389 in Bengali, Madhya Pradesh 466 in Hindi and Maharashtra 312 in Marathi. It was also noticed that regional language newspapers were leading both in number and circulation in all major States. (Chapter 2 Table 2.3).

CIRCULATION PATTERN

1.6.1. Out of the 8512 newspapers that have submitted their annual statement, 350 were �big�, 1555 �medium� and 6607 were �small�. The �big� newspapers circulated 6,76,98,371 copies, the �medium� 6,41,55,462 copies, and �small� 4,88,84,778 copies. (Chapter 3. Table 3.6)

1.6.2. In the �big� category were 214 dailies and tri/bi-weeklies. In the �medium� category, the number stood at 906 and in �small� 1049 dailies. Their circulation accounted for 3,82,50,890 copies, 3,84,76,981 copies and 1,27,01,375 copies respectively. (Chapter 3. Table 3.6)

CIRCULATION LEVELS

1.7.1. Ananda Bazar Patrika, a Bengali daily, published from Kolkatta was the largest circulated single edition daily with 12,34,122 copies followed by Hindustan Times, an English daily from Delhi with 11,36,644 copies. The Times of India, English daily published from new Delhi came third with 11,02,521 copies.

1.7.2. The Times of India, having six editions in English with a combined circulation of 25,42,075 copies came first among multi-edition dailies. Dainik Bhaskar in Hindi having 18 editions, claiming a combined circulation of 21,81,948 copies stood second. Dainik Jagran, (Hindi) with 14 editions and a combined circulation of 21,11,316 copies, occupied the third position.

1.7.3. Among periodicals The Hindu, English weekly from Chennai topped with a circulation of 11,02,783 copies, while The Sunday times of India, English weekly, published from Delhi came second with a circulation of 10,38,954 copies.

OWNERSHIP

1.8.1. Out of 8512 newspapers, as many as 6686 were owned by Individuals, 1122 by Joint Stock Companies, 260 by Societies and Associations, 222 by Trusts and 150 by Firms and Partnerships. 41 newspapers were brought out by the Central and State Governments. Cooperative Societies, Educational Institutions and the like, owned the remaining 31.

1.8.2. Newspapers owned by Individuals had the largest share in circulation i.e., 52.71 per cent, followed by those owned by Joint Stock Companies 39.04 per cent. 427 common ownership units brought out 1550 newspapers during the year. These units also published 167 papers, which had no news content. Newspapers, belonging to these units, had a circulation of 8,13,98,828 copies, i.e. 42.52 per cent of the total circulation of the Indian Press. Dailies published by these units had a circulation of 5,72,55,780 copies i.e. 64.43 % of the total circulation of daily newspapers.

1.9. Out of the total 6343 periodicals, 4238 dealt with News and Current Affairs, while 421 were dealing with Social Welfare. Apart from these there were other periodicals, dealing with various subjects, such as Religion and Philosophy, Medicine and Health, Education, Finance and Economics, Literature and Culture, Children, Women, Law and Public Administration, Film, Commerce, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, Science, Sports, Engineering and Technology and Industry etc. (Chapter 7 Table 7.5)

GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS

1.10. There were 41 Government publications, 37 Central and 4 State. Employment News an English Weekly published from Delhi was the largest circulated Government publication with a figure of 5,06,249 copies. (Chapter 5 Table 5.2)

REGISTERED NEWSPAPERS

1.11.1. The number of registered newspapers as on 31.3.2006 of which 8512 filed their Annual Statements stood at 62,483 during the year. 2074 new newspapers were registered and four ceased their publication during the year 2004-05. Hindi language had the largest number (24924) of registered newspapers, whereas Uttar Pradesh topped the states with 9885 newspapers. Detailed analysis of these registered newspapers can be seen in Chapter X.

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS

1.12.1. Apart from general newspapers and specialized journals, there were 3850 registered publications, which did not contain any public news or views. These publications have, therefore, not been included in the general study of the Press-in-India. Chapter XI is devoted exclusively to the analysis of these publications, comprising market reports and bulletins, publicity journals, fiction, school and college magazines etc.

1.12.2. Of the 3850 miscellaneous publications only 126 furnished their circulation data, claiming 71,69,952 copies. (Chapter 11 Table 11.7)

FOREIGN MISSION PUBLICATIONS

1.13. As on 31.03.2006 twenty-eight foreign missions in India had 111 registered publications. Majority of these were registered from Delhi and others from metropolitan cities of Mumbai, Kolkatta and Chennai.

THE PRESS IN INDIA IN 2005-06: AT A GLANCE (Data compiled as per the annual statements received)
Periodicity	Number	Circulation
Dailies	2,130	8,88,63,048
Tri/Bi-Weeklies	39	5,66,198
Weeklies	3,428	5,05,80,648
Fortnightlies	955	1,23,09,948
Monthlies	1,471	2,11,36,710
Quarterlies	219	15,52,138
Annuals	49	29,86,256
Others	221	27,43,665
TOTAL	8,512	18,07,38,611
�Miscellaneous� Publications	126	71,69,952

News sans prejudice

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Registrar of Newspapers for India