Publishing Scenario of Periodicals in India,

Chinese Librarianship: an International Electronic Journal, 36. URL: www.iclc.us/cliej/cl36pandita.pdf Publishing Scenario of Periodicals in India, 1...
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Chinese Librarianship: an International Electronic Journal, 36. URL: www.iclc.us/cliej/cl36pandita.pdf

Publishing Scenario of Periodicals in India, 1900-2013 Ramesh Pandita Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University India [email protected]

ABSTRACT: The current study is conceived to assess the periodical publishing scenario of India for the period of 1900-2013 as registered with the Office of the Registrar of Newspaper for India (RNI). The periodicals under study include newspapers, news magazines, journals, community papers, serials, etc. Data was retrieved from the official website of the Registrar of Newspaper for India on July 31, 2013. Altogether, there were 116,531 periodical titles. India’s 1.2 billion population are served by 373,839,764 copies of newspapers daily, which is the largest number in the world. More than 23 different periodicities are registered with the RNI, under which different periodicals are published in more than 130 languages. The other areas covered under the study include: distribution of periodicals across the different states and union territories of India, languages used by each state, periodicity, annual and decade growth rate of periodicals, ranking of states on the basis of newspapers published from each individual state. Many other similar areas have been explored to understand the information dissemination pattern across India by these primary sources of information.

I. Introduction On the recommendation of the First Press Commission of India in 1953 and by amending the Press and Registration of Books Act 1867, the Office of the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) was established on July 1, 1956. Apart from duties and functions specifically mentioned in the PRB act, RNI is entrusted with some added responsibilities from time to time, which are both statutory and non-statutory in nature. The compilation and maintenance of newspapers registrations is one of the key functions of the RNI. Some other key functions of the Office are to issue certificates of registration, act as the watchdog, scrutinize statements, formulate newsprint allocation policies, issue guidelines, and prepare and submit reports to the Government of India at regular intervals of time. Newspapers are one of the oldest primary sources of information. Prior to newspapers, information used to get communicated through word of mouth and as such, used to take months to flow from one part of the country to another and years from one country to another. With the advent of newspapers, people started to remain abreast of the latest development taking place around them. For the want of better and faster communication medium like the contemporary newspapers, the coverage of earlier newspapers was mostly confined to their own territories. The 44

Chinese Librarianship: an International Electronic Journal, 36. URL: www.iclc.us/cliej/cl36pandita.pdf

news from the outside world used to take days to reach the publishing bureau of any newspaper or its agency. Compared with the West, the scenario of newspapers publishing industry in the Indian subcontinent as well as other the developing parts of the world was very poor. Newspaper subscriptions were more about the social status than satisfying information needs. In the Indian subcontinent, people used to hang around those who could deliver them firsthand information, especially by reading newspapers. Johannes Gutenberg shall be always remembered for his revolutionary invention in the form of printing press in 1477. The invention of printing press has not only helped to increase the production of printed materials but has also transformed the pattern of information distribution. There are subsequently other inventions whereby information dissemination and handling techniques have been improved from one form to another, such as telegraph, radio, and television. At one time, those inventions were seen as potential threats to the newspaper industry as they are faster, better, and cheaper to transfer information over a wider area. But time has proved this assumption wrong as the newspaper industry has not only survived these threats but also thrived by improving their services and activities. Over time, the newspaper industry has embraced technological innovations to grow stronger. The circulation of newspapers has increased manifold. Thousands of newspapers are being launched every year. The newspapers are now delivered in both electronic and print form. They are also published in print form at different places simultaneously for faster delivery. There is no decline in newspaper subscriptions. People still love and enjoy reading print newspapers over breakfast with great joy. The current study is an overview of the newspapers and other periodicals published in India, covering the entire 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century. The main aim of undertaking the study is primarily to see how the newspaper publishing industry of India is catering to the information needs of its diverse populace at every front. The cultural, geographical, and linguistic diversity of India can be gauged from the fact that in terms of population, India is the second largest populous country in the world with over 1.2 billion people, more than 1,652 recognized languages spoken all over the country, which includes 22 scheduled and over 100 non-scheduled languages (India. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, 2011). People in the states like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttaranchal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan have Hindi as their mother tongue. These states are commonly known as the Hindi-belt or cow-belt area of India. According to the 2011 census, more than 41% of the population across India speak Hindi (India. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, 2011). United Nations has recognized Hindi as the 5th largest spoken language in the world. Apart from Hindi, periodicals across the country are published in more than 130 languages, including some foreign languages. II. Literature Review Researchers, irrespective of their subject affiliations, have undertaken various studies on the publishing practices of newspapers and other periodicals in the world. Most of the time, their research has focused on one aspect of the publishing of newspapers or other periodicals that has piqued their interest.

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Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) conducted a survey on newspapers consumption patterns of Indian masses and observed that 53% of the Internet users, mostly in the age group of 15-35 years from metropolitan cities, prefer to access newspapers on the Internet whereas the percentage of people who access newspapers on the Internet from non-metropolitan cities is far low (Indian Institute of Mass Communication, 2013). An increased circulation of newspapers is also being seen as the consequence of growing marketing strategy, whereby advertisers are pumping in lot of money to promote their products, newspapers being one of the handy and age old tools to reach every home in a defined circulation area. It is believed that the concept of free newspapers is as old as the newspaper itself. Tsao and Sibley (2004) observed that the circulation of free newspapers had jumped from 30 million in 1968 to 88 million in 2000. They believed that advertisers find newspapers attractive as they can reach the targeted circulation. Van der Beek, Swatman, and Krueger (2005) studied the e-business model and the newspapers industry and observed the availability of web-based paid content for newspapers, advertising supported news, and metered news. Sterling (2008) upheld that most of the business literature, articles, and scholarly content in newspapers push towards preserving old model of newspaper industry. Sterling in his argument based on the American Press Institute (API) model, with evidence that traditional business model of newspaper industry is still profitable with local newspapers having quasi-public utility role within community. Franklin (2010) was of the view that “Newspapers have responded to such digital and market challenges by supplementing print editions with an extensive online presence which distributes news as text, streams news in audio visual formats and offers podcasts for downloading.” (p. 443). Pandita and Singh (2011), in their study, discussed about the existence of electronic and print sources of information side by side and how actually both forms are bound to survive as long as there are takers of both. Hillman opined that the newspaper industry has a flat future with no growth due to rising competition from different quarters and indeed information and communication technology is one of them. However, this argument can be easily refuted for the fact that after almost over a decade, the newspaper industry has not only survived but also thrived for the fact that it has embraced and exploited IT and ICT applications to its optimum to provide improved services to clientele. San Jose Mercury News was the first to introduce a fully electronic version of the newspaper in 1993. By the end of 1999, more than 3,000 newspapers were turned online, unleashing a new era of electronic publishing with no looking back. III. Objectives of the Study The objectives of the current study are as follow:  To assess the overall distribution pattern and growth of print newspapers and other periodicals published in India.  To understand the distribution pattern of periodicals by language, periodicity, etc. and rank states on the basis of newspapers published during the 20th century and the first decade of 21st century.  To assess the impact of online publishing on the conventional periodical publishing.

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IV. Research Methodology The data has been mined from RNI’s official website. As of July 31, 2013, there were 116,531 newspapers and other periodical titles registered with RNI. Since the data retrieved was totally raw and in unstructured form, efforts were made to arrange the data in a way to facilitate the attainment of the objectives of the study. Then, relevant information from the retrieved data was analyzed by using various statistical and mathematical tools and techniques. V. Limitations of the Study On RNI’s official website, seven periodicals were registered during the year 1900. However, for the period of 1901-1940, there were no registered periodicals. It could be termed as a dark phase of newspapers publishing in India. The date of registration for 2,481 newspapers published in this period was not available. This dark phase has imposed a major limit to the accurate assessment of the annual and decadal growth of newspapers in India. Moreover, of the 116,531 periodical titles undertaken for the study, it is very difficult to ascertain how many of them are being published on a regular basis. VI. Data Analysis The retrieved data was put in MS Excel for executing simple operations like addition, subtraction, drawing percentage, etc. Percentage in some places has been drawn up to four decimal places in order to show slight variations. Upon analyzing the data retrieved from RNI’s website, it was discovered that there were two types of registration details available for each individual title: one was labeled as the new registration number and the other was labeled as the old registration number. Since not all the titles were assigned a new registration number, it may imply that titles without a new registration number are either because the publishers of such titles have not yet applied for new registration numbers or because such titles have not yet been assigned new registration numbers, for instance, being under process. Therefore, all the titles were analyzed, using both the old and the new registration numbers. Table 1. Distribution of Newspapers/Periodicals Registration Newspapers/ Newspapers/ Newspapers/ Total newspapers/ periodicals with new periodicals with old periodicals without periodicals registration # registration # registration # 50,954 (43.72%) 65,572 (56.27%) 5 (0.004%) 116,531 (100%)

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0.004 Newspapers with new registration #

43.72 56.27

Newspapers with old registration # Newspapers without registration #

Figure 1. Distribution of Newspapers/Periodicals Registration Table 1 shows that there are 50,954 (43.72%) newspapers or other periodical titles registered with RNI, using the new registration pattern and 65,572 (56.27%) with the old registration pattern. RNI recognizes both the registration numbers. Only 5 publications do not have a registration number in the RNI database. Table 2. Periodicity Distribution of Newspapers & Other Periodicals across India Weekly

Fortnightly

Monthly

Bimonthly

Quarterly

Half yearly

Annual/ Yearly

Others

Total

Languages covered

Andaman Nicobar Andhra Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Assam Bihar Chandigarh Chhattisgarh Dadar & Nagar Hav Daman & Diu Delhi Goa Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Jammu & Kashmir Jharkhand Karnataka Kerala

Periodicity Daily

Name of the State & Union Territory

14

23

26

14

1

1

-

-

-

79

6

1,527 10

1254 4

850 1

2,675 2

93 -

225 -

35 -

35 -

41 3

6,735 20

19 2

124 494 55 168 8

246 795 112 287 4

90 225 34 61 8

200 464 168 253 1

30 16 15 13 -

45 127 34 52 -

4 15 14 2 -

13 15 9 4 -

27 44 3 11 -

779 2,195 444 851 21

25 21 6 8 4

9 1,007 23 563 213 29

2 2,724 31 2,144 631 122

1 1,730 19 599 348 41

6,333 47 1,658 533 75

557 2 91 17 6

1,427 15 167 121 32

242 1 10 51 10

269 1 30 82 15

215 4 74 33 3

12 14,504 143 5,336 2,029 333

4 39 10 17 9 10

342

433

64

94

10

21

8

5

12

989

11

68 928 409

31 1,263 437

25 938 342

58 2,396 2,329

2 89 99

20 262 268

1 34 46

27 167

1 61 47

206 5,998 4,144

13 22 22

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Lakshadweep Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Odisha Pondicherry Punjab Rajasthan Sikkim Tamil Nadu Tripura Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand West Bengal Total (percentage)

1,159

3 3,810

3 502

1 2710

56

264

27

32

397

7 8,957

2 18

1,517 58 15 43 8 222 16 295 771 16 631 30 2,712 244 317 14,045 (12.05)

6,114 27 24 47 9 440 23 935 1,704 79 1,020 66 8,983 1,349 1,222 36,398 (31.23)

1133 13 3 6 1 258 19 334 2,108 2 1,011 14 1,632 238 1,203 13,882 (11.91)

4,449 55 14 55 3 704 69 940 1,341 3 3,885 13 3,617 258 2306 37,723 (32.37)

374 7 2 8 46 2 32 47 1 122 2 95 13 244 2,092 (1.79)

1,069 10 4 6 1 247 25 162 241 3 387 6 719 51 1,181 7,193 (6.17)

144 5 1 1 47 4 91 26 2 70 1 185 5 191 1,273 (1.09)

478 35 1 3 191 1 100 65 148 158 3 251 2,138 (1.83)

159 5 1 16 15 1 48 81 2 123 4 223 5 128 1,787 (1.53)

15,437 215 65 185 22 2,170 160 2,937 6,384 108 7,397 136 18,324 2,166 7,043 116,531

33 22 11 9 5 76 16 10 17 4 24 9 24 14 31 132

In the above tabulation, attempt was made to present the in-depth and broader picture of the periodicals published across the county in most self-explanatory manner. Periodicities like daily, daily evening, daily Monday to Saturday, and daily Sunday to Friday have been put together under the category of “dailies”. In the same manner, annual and yearly publications have been put in a single category. In all, newspapers and other periodicals registered with RNI have 23 different periodicities. Table 2 shows that of all newspapers and other periodicals published in India, “Monthly” publications have the largest share of 32.37%, followed by “Weekly” (31.23%) and then “Daily” (12.05%). Other periodicities analyzed include “Fortnightly” (11.91%), “Bimonthly” (1.79%), “Quarterly” (6.17%), “Half yearly” (1.09%), and “Annual/yearly” (1.83%). The rest categories of periodicals have been lumped together as “Others”, which had a combined share of 1.53%. Of the 1,787 periodicals in the “Others” category, 348 are bi-weekly, 252 thrice-monthly, 151 tri-weekly, 80 biennial, 37 triannual, 34 thrice-yearly, 33 four-monthly, 2 Monday-to-Friday, 2 alternate days, 1 four-weekly, and 847 without a definite publishing pattern. Altogether, 132 languages are used in India to publish newspapers and other periodicals. Odisha is the state that publishes periodicals in 76 different languages, followed by Delhi with 39 languages, and Maharashtra 33. Arunachal Pradesh and Lakshadweep publish periodicals only in two languages. The number of languages used in periodicals publishing in some way reflects the linguistic diversity of each state. Needless to say, Odisha has the maximum linguistic diversity.

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Table 3. Annual Growth Distribution of Newspapers & Other Periodicals Since 1900 Year

No. of periodicals Added

Percentage of Growth

Cumulative growth by Number

Cumulative Percentage of Growth

1900 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984

7 6 10 4 8 7 14 21 46 35 35 46 69 94 118 136 229 1,047 557 678 526 516 879 1,188 994 1,167 1,554 2,533 1,432 1,166 1,711 1,638 1,613 1,449 1,280 912 1,686 1,052 1,500 1,408 2,036 1,069 874 798 771

-14.28 66.66 -60.00 100.00 -12.50 100.00 50.00 54.34 -23.91 0.00 31.42 50.00 36.23 25.53 15.25 68.38 357.20 -87.97 21.72 -22.41 -1.90 70.34 35.15 -16.32 17.40 33.16 62.99 -43.46 -18.57 46.74 -4.26 -1.52 -10.16 -11.66 -28.75 84.86 -37.60 42.58 -6.13 44.60 -47.49 -18.24 -8.69 -3.38

7 13 23 27 35 42 56 77 123 158 193 239 308 402 520 656 885 1,932 2,489 3,167 3,693 4,209 5,088 6,276 7,270 8,437 9,991 12,524 13,956 15,122 16,833 18,471 20,084 21,533 22,813 23,725 25,411 26,463 27,963 29,371 31,407 32,476 33,350 34,148 34,919

85.71 76.92 17.39 29.62 20.00 33.33 37.50 59.74 28.45 22.15 23.83 28.87 30.51 29.35 26.15 34.90 118.30 28.83 27.23 16.60 13.97 20.88 23.34 15.83 16.05 18.41 25.35 11.43 8.35 11.31 9.73 8.73 7.21 5.94 3.99 7.10 4.13 5.66 5.03 6.93 3.40 2.69 2.39 2.25

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1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 NA

768 1,176 952 1,274 1,562 1,456 1,720 1,892 1,862 2,327 1,957 2,253 1,861 1,829 2,659 2,886 2,448 2,868 2,720 1,964 2,887 2,015 3,911 3,769 3,631 5,119 6,012 8,240 5,113 2,481

-0.38 53.12 -19.04 33.82 22.60 -6.78 18.13 10.00 -1.58 24.97 -15.90 15.12 -17.39 -1.71 45.37 8.53 -15.17 17.15 -5.16 -27.79 46.99 -30.20 94.09 -3.63 -3.66 40.98 17.44 37.05 -37.94

35,687 36,863 37,815 39,089 40,651 42,107 43,827 45,719 47,581 49,908 51,865 54,118 55,979 57,808 60,467 63,353 65,801 68,669 71,389 73,353 76,240 78,255 82,166 85,935 89,566 94,685 100,697 108,937 114,050 116,531

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2.19 3.29 2.58 3.36 3.99 3.58 4.08 4.31 4.07 4.89 3.92 4.34 3.43 3.26 4.59 4.77 3.86 4.35 3.96 2.75 3.93 2.64 4.99 4.58 4.22 5.71 6.34 8.18 4.69

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9000

400

8000

corresponding growth

7000

No of papers

300 250

Cumulative growth

6000

350

200

5000

150

4000

100 50

3000

0 2000

-50

1000

-100

0

-150

Figure 2. Annual Growth Distribution of Newspapers & Other Periodicals Since 1900 Table 2 shows that in 1900, 7 newspapers or periodicals were published in India. However, there is a gap between 1900 and 1941. In other words, no data is available for that period. The reason could be that no official agency was keeping the records prior to the establishment of RNI. RNI has streamlined the record of newspaper and periodical publications since 1941. A constant and continuous increase in the registration and publication of newspapers and periodicals in India can be observed. There is a steady increase in the registration of newspapers and other periodicals up to 1957 as Figure 2 shows. Since then, there were volatile curves. A negative growth occurred in 35 years at different intervals.

19411950

19511960

19611970

19711980

19811990

19912000

20012010

2011 onwards

NA*

Total

Maharashtra Uttar Pradesh Tamil Nadu Kerala Delhi Rajasthan Chhattisgarh West Bengal Karnataka Andhra Pradesh Bihar Gujarat Punjab Madhya Pradesh

19001940

Table 4. Distribution of Newspapers and Other Periodicals Growth by Decade in India Name of the state/Union Territory

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 -

31 22 21 14 10 3 21 20 14 11 10 4 3

370 473 402 188 490 148 503 229 209 115 122 54 62

1,935 1,895 1,240 718 1,522 530 2 1,605 367 665 171 636 576 401

1,839 1,969 1,124 877 1,851 710 3 1,534 728 717 379 465 595 605

1,021 1,431 516 407 1,698 801 6 802 528 436 632 201 295 1,019

2,461 4,776 1,058 469 2,911 1,462 3 956 971 860 466 1,059 357 1,975

4,287 4,927 2,040 853 4,129 1,691 374 1,082 1,883 2,129 212 1,593 790 2,151

3,236 2,319 869 528 1,651 868 445 435 1,157 1,561 142 1,159 160 2,521

256 511 126 89 241 170 17 105 115 144 67 91 106 220

15,437 18,324 7,397 4,144 14,504 6,384 851 7,043 5,998 6,735 2,195 5,336 2,937 8,957

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Assam Pondicherry Odisha Haryana Himachal Pradesh Tripura Manipur Chandigarh Jammu & Kashmir Jharkhand Mizoram Nagaland Goa Meghalaya Uttarakhand Andaman Nicobar Sikkim Arunachal Pradesh Lakshadweep Daman & Diu Dadar & Nagar Hav Total (Percent)

7

1 1 186 (2,557)

22 3 70 11 8 8 6 3 1 1 1 1 3,500 (1,781)

103 21 253 239 51 4 51 43 69 3 2 24 7 3 3 1 13,140 (275)

101 30 292 373 40 34 46 46 127 1 33 3 25 17 3 7 14,574 (10)

109 14 230 222 25 22 39 60 78 1 50 3 25 10 10 5 2 2 10,700 (-26)

177 9 356 437 78 18 33 115 108 1 40 6 11 10 15 26 17 3 1 1 21,246 (98)

179 53 629 472 80 22 20 124 281 92 40 5 36 14 1,026 21 65 8 2 8 14 31,332 (47)

67 26 310 216 42 21 12 48 306 105 17 2 16 6 1,075 11 17 5 2 3 7 19,365 (-38)

20 3 30 59 9 7 8 5 19 5 1 6 1 44 1 3 2 2,481

779 160 2,170 2,029 333 136 215 444 989 206 185 22 143 65 2166 79 108 20 7 12 21 116,531

Note: NA* = Data Not Available 0.006 2.12 16.61

% of Share

0.159 3

11.27

1900-40 12.5

1941-50 1951-60

9.18

26.88

1961-70 1971-80

18.23

1981-90 1991-2000 2001-2010

Figure 3. Distribution of Newspapers and Other Periodicals Growth by Decade in India Table 4 is an extension of Table 3. It presents an in-depth picture of the growth of newspapers and other periodicals by decade in India. Due to the incomplete data from 1900 to 1940, only 7 newspapers or periodicals were registered. The decade of 1941-50 recorded the registration of 186 periodicals with a growth of 2,557% from the previous decade. Subsequently, newspapers and other periodicals showed growth of 1,781% in the decade of 1951-60, 275% in the decade of 1961-70, and 10% in the decade of 1971-80. A negative growth of 26% was observed in the decade of 1981-90. In the decade of 1991-2000, newspapers and other periodicals grew again by 53

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98% and 47% in the decade of 2001-2010. Since the decade 2011-2020 has just begun, nothing can be concluded about its growth rate. Nevertheless, the figures show a steady number of registrations so far. So a good growth rate could be expected. Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh are the only seven states that have one registered newspapers in the year 1900. Table 5. Periodicity of Languages Publishing 100 or More Periodicals & Their Share

Bimonthly

Quarterly

Half yearly

Annual/ Yearly

Others

18,704 2,305 1,934 3,805 2,255 747 2,048 938 938 649 405 341 378 535 111 72 91 41 13 88 36,398

5,653 1,518 947 513 576 777 559 957 780 613 319 146 221 167 50 15 9 5 12 45 13,882

10,641 6,882 3,718 1,507 1,334 2,716 1,586 1,436 1,776 1,904 1,857 734 535 528 119 73 41 51 36 249 37,723

252 936 270 51 16 44 68 159 40 47 62 40 38 15 16 1 3 7 3 24 2,092

1,478 2,611 895 231 119 89 121 749 100 61 130 234 153 53 19 16 22 4 23 85 7,193

112 659 162 32 6 5 4 123 4 3 4 131 12 10 1 3 2 1,273

174 515 480 196 16 16 29 75 6 6 31 553 24 4 1 4 1 1 1 5 2,138

747 345 143 58 54 71 70 73 34 20 32 62 9 21 16 3 3 12 2 12 1,787

54

4,3697 17,029 8,923 7,384 5,809 5,014 4,974 4,702 4,415 4,402 3,218 2,307 1,537 1,502 382 201 186 159 108 582 11,6531

Share %age

Monthly

5,936 1,258 374 991 1,433 549 489 192 737 1,099 378 66 167 169 50 17 15 38 15 72 14,045

Total

Fortnightly

Hindi English Bilingual Marathi Urdu Tamil Gujarati Bengali Kanada Telgu Malayalam Multani Odisha Punjabi Assamese Sindhi Nepali Mizo Sanskrit Others Total

Weekly

Language & Code

Daily

Periodicity

37.49 14.61 7.65 6.33 4.98 4.30 4.26 4.03 3.78 3.77 2.76 1.97 1.31 1.28 0.32 0.17 0.15 0.13 0.09 0.49

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1.97

1.31

2.76 3.78

4.03

0.32

No. of papers

1.28 0.17

0.16

0.09

0.49

0.13

HINDI

3.77

ENGLISH 37.49

4.26

BILINGUAL MARATHI

4.3

URDU 6.33

TAMIL 7.65

4.98

14.61

GUJARATI BENGALI KANADA

Figure 4. Periodicity of Languages Publishing 100 or More Periodicals & Their Share Table 4 shows that RNI has recognized more than 130 languages in which newspapers and other periodicals are being published in India. These include some foreign languages spoken by people who have got settled in India and taught in Indian schools, colleges and universities as foreign languages. Accordingly, in the above tabulation, attempt was been made to put forth the languages in which more than 100 periodicals are being published in the country. Hindi is the official language of the country and is the mother tongue of more than 41% of the population. As such, it enjoys the highest share of 37.49% of the total publications published in the country. English emerged as the language with the second highest percentage (14.61%) of the total publication share, followed by bilingual newspapers (7.65%). To sum up, 20 languages are used in publishing more than 100 titles and the rest 110 languages are used in publishing 582 titles, which makes up of 0.49% of the gross share and 0.004% of their average individual share.

Table 6. Distribution of Periodicals Published in Foreign Languages Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 6 6 6 10

Language Nepali Arabic French Tibetan Anglo Chinese German Italian Spanish Esperanto 55

Periodicals (%) share 206 (72.53) 33 (11.61) 8 (2.81) 7 (2.46) 4 (1.40) 3 (1.05) 3 (1.05) 3 (1.05) 3 (1.05) 2 (0.70)

Chinese Librarianship: an International Electronic Journal, 36. URL: www.iclc.us/cliej/cl36pandita.pdf

10 10 10 14 14 14 14 14

Indonesia Portuguese Sinhalese Japanese African Burmese Finish Russian Total

2 (0.70) 2 (0.70) 2 (0.70) 2 (0.70) 1 (0.35) 1 (0.35) 1 (0.35) 1 (0.35) 284

No of Periodicals 8

7

1 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 11 433

0

33

206

Nepali Arabic French Tibetan Anglo Chinese German Italian Spanish Esperanto Indonesia Portuguesse Sinhalese Japanese African Burmese Finish Russian

Figure 5. Distribution of Periodicals Published in Foreign Languages To assess the penetration of foreign language periodicals published in India, attempt was made to reflect their distribution in the order of number of titles registered with RNI. In all, 18 foreign languages were identified with 284 active publications. There were many more registered foreign languages. But there were no active periodicals published in these languages. Therefore, they are excluded. Nepali, Arabic, and French are the three leading foreign languages with a maximum number of registered active periodicals with a share percentage of 72.53%, 11.61%, and 2.81% respectively. The rest of the foreign languages can be seen in the pie distribution. Table 7. Distribution of Newspapers and Other Periodicals in Terms of Language, Sustenance and Share Percentage, Ranking, and Titles to Literate Population by State Name of the State/Union Territory Uttar Pradesh Maharashtra Delhi

Total active titles

Deblocked titles

Gross titles

Survival %

Share %

Literacy rate (%)

Titles/1000 literate persons

18,324 15,437 14,504

58,206 82,212 47,590

76,530 97,649 62,094

23.94 15.80 23.35

15.72 13.24 12.44

69.70 82.90 86.30

0.131 0.165 1.003

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Madhya Pradesh Tamil Nadu West Bengal Andhra Pradesh Rajasthan Karnataka Gujarat Kerala Punjab Bihar Odisha Uttarakhand Haryana Jammu & Kashmir Chhattisgarh Assam Chandigarh Himachal Pradesh Manipur Jharkhand Mizoram Pondicherry Goa Tripura Sikkim Andaman Nicobar Meghalaya Nagaland Dadar & Nagar Hav Arunachal Pradesh Daman & Diu Lakshadweep Total

8,957 7,397 7,043 6,735 6,384 5,998 5,336 4,144 2,937 2,195 2,170 2,166 2,029 989 851 779 444 333 215 206 185 160 143 136 108 79 65 22 21 20 12 7 116,531

2,7541 25,571 18,178 19,531 17,662 29,535 14,909 24,852 14,724 5,393 14,534 2,345 8,487 NA* 2,842 2,211 2,204 1,434 810 560 910 982 709 238 132 NA* 178 94 NA* 77 NA* 7 424,658

36,498 32,968 25,221 26,266 24,046 35,533 20,245 28,996 17,661 7,588 16,704 4,511 10,516 989 3,693 2,990 2,648 1,767 1,025 766 1,095 1,142 852 374 240 79 243 116 21 97 12 14 541,189

24.54 22.43 27.92 25.64 26.54 16.88 26.35 14.29 16.62 28.92 12.99 48.01 19.29 23.04 26.05 16.76 18.84 20.97 26.89 16.89 14.01 16.78 36.36 45.00 26.74 18.96 20.61 50.00 21.53

7.68 6.34 6.04 5.77 5.47 5.14 4.57 3.55 2.52 1.88 1.86 1.85 1.74 0.84 0.73 0.66 0.38 0.28 0.18 0.17 0.15 0.13 0.12 0.11 0.09 0.06 0.05 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.006

70.60 80.30 77.10 67.70 67.10 75.60 79.30 93.90 76.70 63.80 73.50 79.60 76.60 68.70 71.00 73.20 86.40 83.80 79.80 67.60 91.60 86.50 87.40 87.80 82.20 86.30 75.50 80.10 77.70 67.00 87.10 92.30 74.04

0.174 0.127 0.100 0.117 0.138 0.129 0.111 0.132 0.138 0.033 0.070 0.269 0.104 0.114 0.046 0.034 0.493 0.058 0.099 0.009 0.186 0.149 0.113 0.042 0.220 0.254 0.029 0.013 0.080 0.021 0.060 0.140 0.130

Note: NA* = Data Not Available Table 7 shows that as the largest state in India, Uttar Pradesh publishes a maximum number of newspaper and other periodicals (15.72% of the total), followed by Maharashtra (13.24%) and Delhi (12.44%). The rest of the country publishes 58.60% of newspapers and other periodicals. Lakshadweep publishes the least, only 7 newspapers or periodicals and thereby has a share percentage of 0.006%. In the above tabulation, attempt was made to determine the share of titles per thousand literate persons in India as a whole, as well as individual states, according to 2011 census. The average number of titles per 1,000 literate persons at national level is 0.130. At the federal level, Delhi emerged as the state with the highest rate of titles per thousand literate persons (1.003), followed by Chandigarh (0.493) and then Uttarakhand (0.269). Jharkhand has 0.009 titles per 1,000 persons, thereby making it the state with the lowest rate. States like Kerala, Lakshadweep, and Mizoram, despite having literacy rate more than 90% each, are no better than the rest in terms of titles per thousand persons, as they stand almost at par with the national average. As per the RNI statistics, nearly 373,839,764 copies of newspapers are circulated each day to 896,027,210 literate people in India, thereby making it 0.41 copies available to each literate person of the country.

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One interesting aspect revealed from the above tabulation is about the sustenance percentage of periodicals from the gross titles that publishers have actually registered and the number that are being published regularly. The average survival percentage of newspapers in India is 21.53%, and the rest (78.47%) die their own death, as they do not survive beyond two years. Lakshadweep, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim are the three states in the federal structure of India that showed sustenance percentage of 50%, 48.01%, and 45% respectively. Odisha showed the minimum survival percentage of 12.99%. VII. Conclusion The large scale circulation of print newspapers in India can be attributed to the fact that more than 90% of people in India still do not have access to the Internet. As such, they are bound to rely heavily on conventional means of publishing and its dissemination. More than 330 million newspapers are circulated daily in India, which constitutes only 12.50% of the total registered periodicals. As far as the circulation of newspapers is concerned, India is followed by countries like China, Japan, United States, and Germany. The survival percentage of titles registered in India is very abysmal, as more than 80% of newspapers and other periodicals fail to survive beyond two years. The uniformity of registration numbers is a bit problematic and RNI needs to streamline it to improve the regulation of periodical publishing in India. There is also a need to add elaborative details to each individual title registered with RNI such as the type of publication (newspaper, news magazine, journal, serial, etc.), specialty if any, and the mode of publishing (electronic or print). The publishing of periodicals in more than 18 foreign languages adds to India’s diversity as a good number of foreigners have made India their home. The existence of Braille newspapers and periodicals in more than 20 different periodic formats also speaks volumes about the diversity in India. The publishing industry around the world has undergone a series of inevitable changes, and the scenario in India is no different. Though the Internet is being seen as a potential threat to the survival of the newspapers industry, various studies undertaken have shown the contrary. The publishing industry has embraced technology in such a manner whereby it has given the industry a new lease of life. Publishing in a hybrid way has catered to the needs of both online and print newspaper readers. The growth in the readership of both print and electronic newspapers is very much there. Print will not die as long as there are users. The decline in the readership of print newspapers is augmented for the fact that the same group of people may have switched over to the electronic version of newspapers. So it is simply a changeover without real readership loss. One area that does arouse concerns in the publishing of print newspapers is that their revenues have shown considerable decline, as advertising in conventional newspapers has decreased to a great extent, which used to be one of the main sources of revenue for this particular industry.

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Author: Ramesh Pandita, Assistant Librarian, Central Library, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Rajouri, R/O 274-C, Durga Nagar Sect. No. 1, P/O Roop Nagar, Jammu (J & K) – 180013, India. E-mail: [email protected] Submitted to CLIEJ on 8 October 2013. Copyright © 2013 Ramesh Pandita Pandita, Ramesh. (2013). Publishing scenario of periodicals in India, 1900-2013. Chinese Librarianship: an International Electronic Journal, 36. URL: http://www.iclc.us/cliej/cl36pandita.pdf

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