Newspaper revenues saved by India…
{ Tags: newspapers \ Nov26 }…so says an article by Eoin Gleeson in this week’s edition of Money Week. In short, the article asks why Rupert Murdoch would commit to buying MySpace and the Wall Street Journal. Answer: Because he believes there’s a place (and being in Money Week there’s a place for profits also) for both media. However, the point that’s most interesting (to me at least) is Gleeson’s description of the newspaper market in India. The article (sorry can’t find it on the site. Money Week needs to sort its website out) says:
“Readership has been exploding in the country, with more than 150 million people picking up a paper every days compared with 97 million in American and 48 million in Germany. With the economy growing at a rate of 8 percent a year, increasing numbers of people can afford an education and are adopting Western lifestyles. There are still at least 360 million literate people in India who have not yet taken to reading papers.
“And as their disposable income rises, so will advertising spend by the companies looking to appeal to their expanding wallets. Revenue from print advertising in India has grown by 21 percent in the first nine months of this year, says the Business Standard.”
Wow! 360 million literate people that *aren’t* yet reading newspapers. Given that India has a population of 1.1 billion makes it over one third of the population. Or, to put it another way, India’s total number of literate citizens that aren’t (yet) reading newspapers is six times the population of the UK OR 60 million people more than the population of America OR the population of the UK and America combined. Whichever stat you compare it with, it’s pretty awesome.
What the article fails to acknowledge is broadband penetration in India also. Point Topic noted (pdf) that, at the end of Q4 2006, India had 2.1 million broadband subscribers. Very low in comparison with the much smaller populated UK which had 13.1 million at the end of the same period.
But when broadband penetration in India does grow in with a relative ratio to the UK’s then we’re in for an interesting time.
I guess that’s why newspaper pioneers like the Guardian are becoming more global in their outlook. Which reminds me, I read an blog post today saying that the Guardian has surpassed the New York Times in terms of traffic. Can’t remember whose blog I read it from now though.
Anyway, no real conclusion to this blog post. Those stats just blew me away. I guess it’s a kinda ‘thinking out loud’ type blog post.
Stephen is managing director of 3W PR, a UK based online PR consultancy. You can connect with him on Twitter or check out his LinkedIn profile. | Email StephenRelated Posts
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Michael Allison
These are some interesting statistics to keep an eye on.
I wonder if the part of the 360 million literate and willing people who eventually decide to read the news won’t just skip the paper medium all together and go straight to online versions instead–or even ignore traditionally-owned media in lieu of amateur or user-generated content (access permitting, of course).
As for me, I read articles from the Guardian online much more than I read NY Times articles–never really thought about that before…
Stephen
“I wonder if the part of the 360 million literate and willing people who eventually decide to read the news won’t just skip the paper medium all together and go straight to online versions instead”
Indeed. There are, of course, other aspects to address such as cultural differences to the West. Look at Japan, the mobile web over there is used more than the regular web.
Mihnea Miculescu
Nah, I wouldn’t think that they’d just skip the paper medium if in 2007 only under 2% of the country’s population has a broadband connection. And let’s not forget that at the end of 2006, their GDP per capita only went so much as about $3.700.
Stephen
Once broadband penetration increases (remember, we’re still early days yet) then I think it will play a part in mishmashing the Indian newspaper industry.
If we’re talking monetary terms then consider this: Is it worth paying 50 pence (as a guess) per day for a newspaper which would work out at £16 per month when you could buy a month’s worth of broadband for around £20 per month.
As the Money Week article mentions, people in India are becoming more affluent and adopting Western styles. Maybe the majority of the population will be able to afford both newspaper and broadband at some point?
Mihnea Miculescu
Yes, I totally agree - but let’s go back to the basics - can most of them afford the actual computers?
Stephen
Current day: very few.
10 years from now (with the increase in GDP and continous decrease in technology costs): Quite a lot I would expect.
A lot of Indians are using PCs in their day jobs also.
Mihnea Miculescu
That I cannot object to. Should be fun to witness the world’s fastest-growing country (in terms of population) shifting media.
Stephen
Indeed. And China, the rest of Asia and Eastern Europe also.
Michael Allison
Sort of off topic:
Would you say that PR and media folk in the UK and Europe pay more attention to the growing economies of developing countries like India and China than those in North America?
Mihnea Miculescu
I’ll definitely be rooting for the ‘Central and Eastern Europe’ part, that’s for sure.
Stephen
Sorry Michael, so you mean do we pay more attention to developing countries more than we pay attention to America?
Or do you mean we pay more attention to developing countries more than what the US does?
In both instances I’d say no.
We pay a lot of attention to what’s going on in the States. Let’s be honest, both countries are similar in culture.
In terms of developing countries, I think America’s got it’s finger on the pulse there too.
Michael Allison
The second question was what I was trying to ask, but that answers it anyway.
Cheers.
mark
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