“In India, Print Media Is Just Being Invented”

Guardian (Via Gulf Times): India would remain a happening print market for sometime to come. While in the rest of the world (read developed markets), the newspaper industry is worrying about declining readership and the readers’ shift towards the internet to consume news and other information, in India, there are no such worries yet since the internet penetration has reached only less than 5 per cent of the population.
We had written about the impending four newspaper launches in Delhi market alone. The Times of India group is shortly launching a general news English daily targeted at the young and happening crowd. The India Today Group is also scouting for a foreign partner for their morning daily project. The Hindustan Times is coming out with their business newspaper, for which it has roped in Raju Narisetti, former editor of Wall Street Journal Europe.
A Guardian article sums up the action in the print media industry in India. It quotes Narisetti: “There are three countries where starting a paid-for newspaper is now possible. They are Brazil, China and India. China is not open yet, I do not speak Portuguese and India is, well, home in a way.” He adds that they used to get excited in Brussels (WSJ Europe HQ) when the paper grew at 2 per cent, here (in India) people are talking about 35 per cent growth in revenues. So India is the market to be in. Narisetti has already started getting emails from Indian-origin journalists in the US asking for jobs. However, that is not going to be easy for now. Says Narisetti: “The wages might put them off because top reporters in India earn Rs 80,000 (about $1750) a month. That’s what an entry-level metro reporter gets in the US.”

Comments have been disabled for this post