Despite the Digital boom, Print Media continues to flourish
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 29, 2015
Despite the boom in digital news outlets, the number of registered print publications is growing at a consistent rate of 6%. As on March 31st, 2015 there were a total of 105443 registered print publications. More than 40% of these were in Hindi.
According to the annual ‘Press in India 2014-15 Report’ compiled by Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI), the total number of registered print media publications stood at 1,05,443 as on 31 March, 2015. This is nearly 6% more than the number of publications registered a year ago.
Number of registered publications
As per the annual report, a total of 1,05,443 newspapers/periodicals are registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) as on 31 March, 2015. Uttar Pradesh tops the list with more than 16000 registrations followed by Maharashtra with more than 14000. Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh & Rajasthan follow in that order. Ten states have more than 5000 registered Newspapers/periodicals. Eighteen (18) States/UTs have less than 1000 registrations each.
Language of Newspapers/Periodicals
As expected, most of the registered publications are registered in Hindi (42493) followed by English (13661), Marathi (7818), Gujarati (4836) and Urdu (4770). Newspapers and periodicals are published in a total of 23 different languages and 172 different dialects. The lowest number are registered in Dogri Language (2), followed by Kashmiri (5) and Bodo (5).
Consistent growth in Printed Publications
There has been a consistent growth in the number of registered printed publications despite the boom in digital news outlets and greater internet access. The growth in the number of registered publications was more or less consistent at 6% during the last 5 years except in 2012-13 when it grew by over 8%.  The growth is primarily because of the increase in the number of dailies and other publications.
Only 22% publications file Annual Reports
Only 22% (22787 out of 105443) of the registered publications filed their annual statements as required under Section 19(D) of the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867. This number stood at 20% for the year 2013-14. The circulation figures put out by this annual report are based on the annual statements filed by these 22% publications.
Registered Publications claim a circulation of more than 51 Crore
The publications that filed the annual report claimed a  total circulation of 51,05,21,445 copies as against 45,05,86,212 copies per publishing day in 2013-14,  an increase of 13.30 per cent over previous year.  The circulation figures have also registered a growth of 182.46 per cent during the last decade. More than 50% of all the circulation claimed is for publications in Hindi.
Featured Image: By Shajankumar (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons