I am chilling at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore - the Harvard of India - sipping on my morning cup of tea, and reading the Indian Express. My mission is to advise an Australian company on the future of the print industry in India.
But wait, isn't print dead, and isn't all content being digitised?
" image: https://www.anderssorman-nilsson.com/hs-fs/file-1336224771-jpg/blog-files/img_3845.jpg --- [ ](https://www.anderssorman-nilsson.com) # Decoding Tomorrow: Futurism and Foresights Today Foresights and ideas that expand minds and inspire a change of heart. # Digital Countertrend: Indian Print Industry on the Rise Posted by [anders@thinque.com.au](https://www.anderssorman-nilsson.com/blog/author/andersthinquecomau) on October 20, 2012 - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) ## Bangalore, India - October 2012 I am chilling at the [Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore](http://www.iimb.ernet.in/newsletter/) - the Harvard of India - sipping on my morning cup of tea, and reading the Indian Express. My mission is to advise an Australian company on the **future of the print industry in India. ** **But wait, isn't print dead, and isn't all content being digitised? ** While print - books, newspapers, magazines, and printed communications - and by association, printers, are struggling in the West, in the East and across the developing world, print is booming. **While India's GDP is forecast to grow at a pace of 6.1% for the next few years, print is outperforming GDP at a rate of 9.1%.** Increasing literacy rates, government programs to raise educational levels, and cultural focus on access to information are responsible for driving this trend. Booming industries like retail and financial services also demand increasing amounts of printed communications, and in a country where only 2% have regular access to the internet and digital content, **print is the medium of choice. ** There is something beautiful to interacting with a paper. Whether it be the [International Herald Tribune](http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/author/the-international-herald-tribune/) on a flight from London to New York, the [South China Morning Post ](http://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs)at the W Hotel in Hong Kong, or [Monocle Magazine ](http://monocle.com/monocolumn/)at Bondi Icebergs, the feel, the slower speed, and the depth of content reminds us of a time forlorn in the West, yet our brains seem to crave this more considered view of global affairs.  ## So let us take a look at the Indian print industry, and why it's bucking the disruptive digital trends in the West. Print Media in India is an excellent example of an industry which continues to buck the trend by **embracing the analogue, the tangible, the high touch**, unlike the global print industry which has shown negative growth in readership and ad revenues year on year. Newspapers in India are projected to grow by an annualised 9.6% over the period 2010-2015. With over 90 million copies in circulation daily, the Indian print industry is now one of the largest in the world, second only to China (130 million copies).  Unlike in the western countries and in some of the other Asian countries, the newspaper in India is still eagerly awaited every morning and is consumed with the morning cup of Chai Masala. People still love the way the local newspaper smells and feels in their hands. ## Here are a couple of observations of local drivers of newspaper and print media adoption: ***The rise of hyper-localisation**** - *Newspapers are now realizing value in going a step further and launching area-specific editions of newspapers - so called vernaculars. Publishers have opted for content more personable and closer to the reader's heart, catering to their **desire for the local and the personal**, to 'tell the story'. Regional papers also give advertisers access to localized population and their niche target audience, difficult to do via national broadcast media. These cater to the local population and are mostly launched in metros, to derive maximum advertising spends. For example, TOI has launched South Mumbai and Navi Mumbai editions. ***Growth of online editions**** - *Most print media companies have made forays into the online market to cater for the consumer's increasing appetite for ubiquitous information. Online revenues have accrued to transaction- and commerce-led models (online shopping, etc.) and certain types of classified advertising (particularly jobs and matrimonials) have started moving online. Most newspapers have an online presence and a growing view count on their portals, but **hard copy still remains the preferred mode to access news**. We do not expect any significant change in this trend over the next five years. **The top 10 dailies in India all have online versions of their newspapers** with varying success as some newspapers have struggled to earn subscription revenues. Even though **digital media** like the tablet and mobile could be the next piece of hardware to replace the feel of paper in one's hands, its prohibitive cost and low broadband penetration ensures that it will be several years before this becomes a reality. At present, **less than 10% of the population has access to e-papers** and even here the preference is for the print version over the online one. Going forward however, if technologies like 3G and reducing handset prices begin to drive data and internet traffic to mobile handsets, this scenario can change.  ## - What do you think about the future of print? - How will the print industry navigate the next wave of disruptive change? - How can firms incorporate the analogue story and brand, in a way that is digital? 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