Print holds its ground but the ground is shifting: EY report

The headline number INR 259.4-billion in total print revenues is almost indistinguishable from the INR 259.3-billion recorded two years earlier. After a dip to INR 257.2-billion in 2024, the segment posted a shallow recovery. But calling it 'flat' obscures a structural story: advertising is recovering while circulation is eroding, and for now, the two movements are cancelling each other out.

Newspapers remain the dominant force by an overwhelming margin, generating INR 251.8-billion in 2025 against magazines' INR 7.5-billion. Both sub-segments grew marginally after a 2024 dip, with magazines showing slightly stronger momentum, climbing from INR 7.1-billion over two years.

Advertising

Print advertising revenues grew 2% in 2025, recovering from a 2024 dip to reach INR 179.3 billion, the highest point in the three-year window. Crucially, the growth was volume-led rather than price-led: ad insertion volumes climbed 2% over 2024, marking the third consecutive year of volume growth, but rate per insertion held broadly steady. Total volumes now sit approximately 6% above 2021 levels, representing a genuine multi-year recovery that runs counter to global print advertising trends.

The number of advertisers using print climbed to nearly 1,50,000, spanning 669 product categories and approximately 1,79,000 individual brands. Four of the five largest advertisers in 2025 came from the automotive sector — Maruti Suzuki, Hero Motocorp, Tata Motors, and TVS Motor Company — underscoring the industry's continued reliance on print for product launches and high-visibility campaigns. Cars was the fastest-growing ad category, expanding from 7% to 9% of total ad volumes.

Language mix tells an important story. Hindi alone accounted for 37% of all newspaper ad volumes forming the single largest segment while English gained two percentage points of share compared to 2024. Together, Hindi and English publications captured 67% of total newspaper advertising volumes. Regional language newspapers held steady without growing their share. In magazines, English took 50% of advertising volumes, up from 48%.

GST rate rationalisation acted as a meaningful catalyst, particularly for FMCG, automotive, and consumer durables brands. On-ground events contributed roughly 4–6% of total advertising revenues; the ten print companies surveyed collectively delivered over 1,500 events during the year. "In an AI-saturated information environment, print becomes more premium — a trusted, privacy-respecting space. While digital merely reports events, print contextualises and assigns importance through editorial judgment,” said Sivakumar Sundaram, BCCL (Times of India Group). 

One in every three print advertisements now carries a direct call to action — QR codes, time-limited offers, eCommerce links, or contest mechanics. Product launches and platform sale events are increasingly bridging the newspaper and the smartphone, positioning print as a performance medium rather than purely a brand-building one.

Circulation

Circulation revenues have declined for two consecutive years — from INR 81.7-billion in 2023 to INR 80.7-billion in 2024 and INR 80.1-billion in 2025, a 1% drop each year. Print is increasingly perceived as a medium for readers aged 35 and above; younger audiences are migrating to digital and social platforms.

The industry is divided on how to respond. One camp advocates cover price increases to fund higher distributor incentives; the other warns that further hikes risk narrowing the audience to a niche premium segment. Most newspapers held prices steady in 2025. Bundling, for example, print plus digital packages, premium editions, value-added offerings, is emerging as a middle-ground strategy that maintains affordability while improving revenue per subscriber.

Print's doorstep delivery network is under serious strain. Delivery agents are increasingly opting for gig-economy platforms. Publishers are experimenting with 'society-gate' delivery: bulk-dropping papers at residential society entrances via gatekeepers. Magazines have found new routes through Zepto, Blinkit, ONDC, and Prasar Bharati's WAVES platform, now accounting for approximately 9% of total copy sales for leading magazine publishers.

Digital and AI

Digital revenue growth slowed markedly in 2025, decelerating to approximately 7% on average after several years of double-digit expansion. Digital contributes around 6% of total revenues and 8% of advertising revenues for larger players, significant in direction of travel, but still modest in absolute scale.

Two structural pressures are intensifying. First, AI-powered search tools and news summarisation features are estimated to divert roughly 30% of referral traffic away from publisher websites. Second, influencer-led news and explanatory content is growing rapidly across finance, politics, and entertainment, drawing younger audiences through brand collaboration models that compete directly with traditional advertising.

The industry's AI posture shifted in 2025 from small-scale pilots to structured, organisation-wide deployment but almost entirely on the operational side. Current use cases include language translation and regional localisation, fact-checking support, archival search, headline testing, subscriber behaviour analytics, and automated ad creative generation. Large-scale AI-generated editorial content has seen limited adoption, reflecting caution about editorial integrity.

"Every major technology shift makes original content creation more expensive and less financially rewarding. Yet it is precisely this original, differentiated content that will form the defensive moat for legacy media brands across all platforms,” Anant Goenka, The Indian Express.

The road to 2028

EY projects print revenues to grow at 1% CAGR through 2028, reaching approximately INR 264-billion. That modest headline conceals a widening split: advertising is forecast to grow at 2% CAGR while subscription revenues are expected to decline at 2% CAGR as physical copy volumes gradually fall.

EY projects that the recent government advertising rate revision raising DAVP rates by 26%, will generate an additional 2–3% uplift in overall advertising revenues, with regional and smaller publishers benefiting most. 

Conclusion 

The picture that emerges from 2025 is of an industry that has absorbed significant disruption without collapse but one that cannot afford complacency. The structural shift from circulation to advertising as the primary revenue engine is well underway. Whether print can grow its advertising base fast enough to offset the persistent drip of circulation decline — and whether credibility proves to be as commercially durable as publishers believe — will determine the shape of Indian print media through the rest of the decade.

Analysis based on EY India Media and Entertainment Report 2025 · Pages 92–103