In the western world, daily newspapers are now finding it very difficult to grow their business and are facing competition from cable television and online portals. Many newspapers in the west are suffering decline in their daily circulation and advertisement revenue. So, when I read the report in Washington Post titled ' Business Booming At India's Dailies' I felt a bit surprised. But then, I thought about my own country Bangladesh. In the last 5-6 years we have seen some new newspapers in Dhaka that managed to get good circulation. And Indian economy is growing even in a larger pace than Bangladesh.
The main factor behind this boom is the fact that India has a growing economy now and the rate of literacy is increasing too. Thus, the number of people who can read a newspaper and can afford to buy a newspaper is growing in India by millions every year. Secondly, by nature, South Asian people (not just in India) give more value to newspapers than television channels. Until 15 years ago, television channels were under strict government control in all South Asian countries including India and for nearly one century Indian people are accustomed to be influenced by Newspaper editorials and reports.
I am quoting here form the report in Washington Post:
Newspaper and magazine readership hit 200 million across the country in 2005, an increase of 12 percent over 2003. Industry analysts expect the trend to continue at a similar clip for the next few years as more young Indians join the ranks of readers."
India has a population of over 1 billion and 200 million readers for newspapers still constitutes the minority of the population.
Hey! We were just talking about this in my blog! LOL!
Posted by: Panda | May 24, 2006 6:20 PM | Permalink to Comment