Newspapers to get bigger ad share in 2018

Some happy news for the printed newspaper. According to a The Economic Times report, 2018 is going to be a big year for the growth of newspapers in India. This is according to multiple forecasts by top media agencies. There are several reasons to be optimistic, including assembly elections in eight states; growth in print industry-friendly sectors such as auto, consumer durables and BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance); and readership survey release after three years.

13 Dec 2017 | By Dibyajyoti Sarma

The Indian Readership Survey (IRS), the largest readership research study in the world, is the currency for advertisers to advertise in print media. IRS is a joint exercise by Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI). The last survey was released back in January 2014 (based on 2013 data), which was rejected by several publishers. Since then, the republished data in August 2014 and March 2015 was also not acknowledged by the industry.

According to The Economic Times report, RSCI chairman Shashi Sinha said new IRS data will be released in February next year, which will show the growth of the entire industry. IRS’ sample size has been increased by 40% to 3,30,000 respondents.

In May, the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), the apex body of print publishers, had released its data showing that the Indian print publications have grown 4.87% a year in 10 years to reach 6.28 crore copies in average daily circulation in 2016 from 3.91 crore in 2006.

The ABC data was testament to the fact that print media in India is growing amid a global slowdown as readers in the country continue to find the medium more credible and aspirational.

Even the latest report by Magna Global — a company of IPG Mediabrands that is headed by Sinha in India — has predicted a 12.1% growth in the overall advertising expenditure (AdEx) in 2018, driven by categories such as auto, FMCG, banking, consumer durables and ecommerce.

According to Magna’s Media Economy Report for December 2017, net advertising revenue of print media is expected to grow by 6% to Rs 21,842 crore by December 2018, from Rs 20,613 crore now.

Newspapers, though not given separately, are expected to grow at a faster clip as print media also include magazines, which in fact are seeing de-growth.

A study by Zenith, the ROI agency of the Publicis Group, had said newspapers will continue to be the most dominant media segment for the next three years. As per Zenith forecast, by 2020, newspapers will have Rs 28,670 crore, or 38.9% share of the total AdEx.

The Magna report predicts that advertising revenue will grow at CAGR of 12.1% in the next five years to touch Rs 1.07 trillion. By 2022, the report predicts that print and digital will have equal share of 25% in the AdEx, as digital will grow by a 21.6%.
(With help from The Economic Times)