A summary of RNI’s annual report

Recently, T Jayaraj, press registrar, RNI presented the 55th Annual Report— Press in India 2010-11 to Uday Kumar Varma, secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.

The Annual Report highlighted key trends for the Indian press for the year 2010-11. The analysis provides a broad overview about the general trend of the Indian press based on the number and claimed circulation of newspapers.

Speaking on the occasion, Varma said: “The annual report was a compendium of interesting data containing status of print media in the country. This report becomes an important reference point for key stakeholders in the industry.”

A report published by PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PWC) in July 2011 stated that the overall market size of the print industry was 178.7 billion in 2010 and was expected to touch 282 billion INR by 2015, with a CAGR of 9.6%.

Statistics of newspapers in India
According to the report, the total number of registered newspapers stood at 82,237. Around 4,853 new newspapers were registered during 2010-11. The percentage of growth for registered publications over the previous year was 6.25%.

It justifies the point made by several print experts who have been stating that the newspaper industry has been witnessing a slower growth rate than the projected 10% by leading research institutions.

It also reported that the newspaper industry to grow at a CAGR of 10.1% from 159.5 billion in 2010 to 257.7 billion INR in 2015. At the same time the magazine industry was pegged to grow at 4.8% to reach a worth of 24.3 billion INR in 2015 from 19.2 billion INR in 2010.

RNI approved 13,229 titles for the year 2010 ending 31 March 2011. The largest number of newspapers and periodicals registered in any Indian language was in Hindi with a figure of 32,793. English recorded second largest number of newspapers and periodicals, with 11,478 new newspapers and periodicals being registered.

The total circulation of newspapers stood at 32,92,04,841 as against 30,88,16,563 copies in 2009- 10. The number of annual statements received in RNI for the year 2010-11 up to 15 June 2011 was 14,508 against 13,134 in 2009-10; registering an increase of 10.46%.

In terms of circulation, according to the report, Hindi newspapers continued to lead with 15,54,94,770 copies followed by English with 5,53,70,184 copies. Urdu press had a figure of 2,16,39,230 copies.

As per the data from the annual statements received, the highest number of newspapers were published in Hindi (7,910), followed by English (1,406), Urdu (938), Gujarati (761), Telugu (603), Marathi (521), Bengali (472), Tamil (272), Oriya (245), Kannada (200) and Malayalam (192).

The report is a statutory requirement under Section 19 G of the PRB Act, 1867. The 722 pages report, carrying 11 chapters has been compiled by the officials of RNI. It is an analysis of the Indian press, which focuses mainly on circulation as claimed by the newspapers.

The report includes 11 chapters which details about the ownership of newspapers, analysis of daily newspapers, language wise study of the press and analysis of registered newspapers. The source of information of the report is the Annual Statements submitted by the publishers of newspapers and periodicals.