Print media expanding in South Asia

by David Silverberg

While the West is still reeling from sagging advertising and classified sales in print publications, South Asia is seeing resurgent growth in their news outlets, according to the Hindu .

Jacob Mathew, president of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), said the print media “was expanding its presence in the South Asian region” especially in India and China. India is especially seeing major growth – print advertising has surged 15 percent annually and circulation has increased five percent in over the last three years.

Mathew added around 170 million newspaper readers reside in India, amounting to roughly 20 per cent of the adult population.

Looking at how the Internet has impacted circulation, Christoph Riess, CEO of WAN-IFRA, “concluded that it was clearly not affecting the newspaper business. Two out of three copies sold worldwide came from Asia — mainly India and China,” the Hindu writes.

Finally, Mathew reported the print industry in India would generate $136 billion by 2013, but he didn’t cite current revenue figures.