Present print Media in India

India is known as one of the few countries in the world which is thriving in the field of print media. It is one of the nations in the world which has a great reverence for print media. India as compared to other countries is intensifying its percentage in newspapers, readership, reach and access of print media. There are an estimated eighty thousand individual newspapers in India and growing. We have an example of ‘Times of India’. It has the daily circulation of four million three hundred thousand, largest of any English newspaper in the world. The other example can be taken of ‘Economic Times’. It is the world’s second most widely read English-language business newspaper, after the ‘Wall Street Journal’. We can not deny the fact that India is growing in this element of Mass communication. It is of great significance to understand that why is print media in India thriving with such a pace? Whereas the developed countries like USA is losing the race of percentage in growth print media.

There are number of reasons which are responsible for the growth of print media in India. Some of them are as under: 

1.      Reliability on print media

2.      Growing literacy rate

3.      Historical influence on psycho-social set up

4.      Commercialization in print media

5.      Content diversification

6.      Poor installation of  advanced technologies(2G 3G)

7.      Multi lingual Nation

Reliability on print media

The trend of reliability on print media is the prime reason for the well development of print media in India. Newspapers, books and magazines are still taken as the ‘Gospel of truth’-authentic source of information and reference.

Growing literacy rate

Another reason can be drawn as the growing literacy rate in India. Every year, twenty million more Indians become literate each year. In contemporary times, English is considered as Lingua France- a language commonly understood by people. Learning English language has given a new rise to print media in India.

Historical influence on psycho-social set up

The active participation of newspapers in social reforms and India struggle for independence has developed a sense of respect and reverence in minds and hearts of people. This is playing a great role in advancement and development of  print media in India.

Commercialization in print media

In media commercialization is usually considered very pejorative, but it cannot be defied that it has widened the areas of development in print media. Newspapers in India follow a managerial strategy in sales of their newspapers. They sell their newspaper on reduced costs. They mainly make their revenue from the advertisers. This strategy was first adopted by ‘Times of India’ and later followed by others. The system of paid news and mouth piece coverage has been other managerial actions done by the owners for maximizing their profits. It is the hard core reality of the growth and thriving of print media that it has been commercialized and turned the print media as a corporate.

Content diversification

 Content has been diversified in print media particularly in newspapers and magazines for making it more peachy and illuminating. Contrasting with the past, newspapers are manufacturing content reader oriented. Not restricting itself to hard news and editorials, it has made different inclusions like global news, sports column, page3, classifieds, matrimonial, economic news, Media-net etc. The diversity and reader orientation has helped print media to great extent to bloom.

Poor installation of advanced technologies (2G and 3G)

There has been a substantial threat to print media by online media. In USA, the decreasing rate of newspapers has been a reason of involvement in online media by readers. It is possible for other countries as well. India is a developing nation and a third world country. There has not been an excellent practice from the government in installation of the new generation of technologies (2G and 3G), which resulted as a benefit to print media. The breakage in the technology has hampered the complete development of online media and has also stopped the creation of online culture of readership.

Multi lingual Nation

 India is a multi-lingual nation. 85% of total newspapers are published in the local language.  It is one of the significant reasons of the full swing development of print media. Besides, it is a herculean task to transform the whole texts of different languages to publish online. It can be said that it safeguards the print media from the substantial threat of reducing rate of readership by the influence of online media.

            In brief it can be said that print media is one of the thriving and self sustaining element of mass communication and also India has been successful in retaining the value, reverence and culture of print media alive and growing.