Guest Column: “There is hope for better days to come” Suresh Srinivasan

The Media in India is really big. It reaches millions of people. 94,067 newspapers (12,511 dailies) with a total readership of 960 million , 161 million TV households. According to a recent study, there are about 300 million internet users in the country and by December 2014, India will overtake the US as the second largest Internet user’s base in the world after China.

Having a wider look newspaper industry worldwide, WAN-IFRA’s study on world Press Trends 2014 provides a comprehensive picture of newspaper industry across the globe and current trends.
There are some insightful revelations in the study like, more than half of world’s adult population read a daily newspaper - 2.5 billion in print and 800 million in digital form. Key factors have been quality journalism, multi-platform business strategies and continuous growth of digital contents.

According to the study, newspaper industry generates $160 billion of revenue globally through content sales, advertising revenues etc. There is a high demand for high-quality news content and newspaper companies are finding ways to transfer this demand into sufficient revenues. Global newspaper trends reveal a robust industry that has evolved and grown as a result of major technological and structural disruptions. It is recognized that print product continues to play major part of the business and is likely to continue to do so in future.

2014 – A landmark year
With $163 billion, global print revenue continues to remain stable. Print Readership too remains stable with 2.5 billion adult readership. However the digital revenue and digital readership figures are growing at 11% and 23% respectively. It is significant that, the gap between advertising and circulations are narrowing globally.  While circulation rose globally after years of decline, advertising revenues continued to fall in 2013. Circulation’s share of total revenue is forecast to continue rising in the future. Even though digital advertising revenue is growing, digital still represents the small part of overall global newspaper industry revenue.
Globally 93% of newspaper industry revenue comes from print and print will continue to be major source of revenue for many years. Print’s revenue share was 96.5% in 2009 reaching to 93.7% in 2013 marginally declining year after during subsequent years.
Indian Scenario
Print Advertising  has remained strong and steady during the year . The election period and festival seasons contributed significantly to the growth  of advertising . So have  e-commerce companies.  In the midst of an economic slowdown, the industry faced several challenges.  
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The Indian Media and Entertainment Industry is expected to grow at a rate of 14.2% during 2013-18, as per  FICCI-KPMG study on the industry during 2014. The print media industry will grow at CAGR of 9% during 2013-18.
The big hope for the future  growth of the M&E industry continues to be digital. With a fast growing internet user base of over 300 million internet users, the potential of the industry to enhance engagement with customers and generate revenue from digital media is indeed vast.
In terms of print media, the rise in literacy rates, significant population growth, the rise in incomes in smaller towns and the entry of big players in regional markets is likely to drive future expansion of regional circulation and readership across India. Examples of national players launching regional print editions include – The Hindu launching a Tamil edition, Times of India launching a Gujarati edition NavGujarat Samay and Dainik Bhaskar’s entry in Patna.

Recent advertising trends of print media in the country discloses several pointers. A close look at advertising pattern of major verticals which drive advertising in print media reveals that, the contribution from verticals like Automobiles, Retail, and Consumer Products have been steady with growth over previous year. The verticals like BFSI, Education, RealEstate, while marginally declining during the middle of year has begun to signs of improvement. Telecom products, FMCG, Textile and Clothing and Political Ads have increased their advertising for print media over previous year significantly.

To sum it up, it can be stated that in last few months, foundation of the industry was strengthened to position for growth as the economy improves. The expected proactive measures of new Government at the centre and stabilizing inflation rates in recent months have given hope for better days to come.

The author is Vice President  The Hindu Group of Companies