Ownership of Daily Newspapers in India

Five industrial groups, namely, Goenka, Sahu fain, Birh, Andrew Yule and Karnani. occupy a predominant
place m the ownership of daily newspapers in India. In addition, there are some 11 major newspaper groups, in
the sense that their controlling interests had practically no interest in industrial activities. Whether one takes
only the five industrial groups or all the 16 groups, concentration of ownership of daily newspaper circulation us
very high.
This article is concerned with (a) listing the leading chains-cum-groups in the daily press, and (b) exa-
mining their share of total circulation.

A T the end of 1963, India had Table 2: Multiple Units of Dailies 1963
nearly 7,800 newspapers and
periodicals. Of these 4,570, for which Name of Daily Centres of Publication Circulation
data arc available with the Registrar Centre Total
of Newspapers, had a total circulation
of 20 million. The total number of
dailies was 503; the circulation of 345
dailies, for which data are available,
was 5.6 million.
The Registrar classifies newspapers
(including both dailies and periodicals)
under common ownership in three
broad categories:
(a) Chains: More than one news-
paper under common ownership
from more than one centre.
(b) Groups: More than one news.
paper of the same title, language
and periodicity under common
ownership from the same centre.
(c) Multiple units: More than one
newspaper of the same title,-lan-
guage and periodicity under
common ownership from differ
ent centres.
These categories overlap in the
sense that particular organizations of
newspapers, say, the Times of India
embraces all the three categories: it
publishes five dailies, and seven perio-
dicals from Bombay ('group') and two
of the dailies are published simulta-
neously from Bombay and Delhi

Table 1: Number and Circulation of Dailies,

by Language in 1963
August 7, 1965 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY

1228
August 7, 1965
('chain' and 'multiple units'). While
groups, and to a lesser extent chains,
are a common feature in many coun-
tries, the frequency of multiple units
in India is a rather unusual feature.
There are, 27 multiple units, against
15 chains and 36 groups, again with
overlaps.
With the exception of Statesman,
Thanthi and Mulai Murasu, all the
leading multiple unit dailies belong to
the large chains and/or groups. At
the same time, some independent
dailies with a small circulation also
have multiple units, but this pheno-
menon is practically confined to Hindi
and Punjabi papers. Curiously enough,
the Birla group's chain has no multi-
ple unit whatever (though it. has a
Kanpur supplement to the Hindustan
Times published from Delhi). On the
whole, it would be correct to say that
the bigger multiple units tend to
coincide with big chains and groups.
Since it is difficult to unscramble
the chains and groups, we may satisfy
ourselves with two broad particulars:
(1) the leading chains-cum-groups, and
(2) their share in total circulation.
In 1963, 143 dailies (including mul-
tiple units) were under common own-
ership; their circulation of 3.8 million
accounted for 68 per cent of the total
circulation of all dailies. In 1962, the
figures were 130, 3.5 million and 66
per cent. The increase in the share of
1230
dailies under common ownership
would have been greater if more
newsprint had been available to them.
Five industrial groups, namely,
Goenka, Sahu Jain, Birla, Andrew
Yule, and Karnani, play a major role
in the ownership of daily newspapers
(besides periodicals with which we are
not concerned here). These groups
(derisively called the Jute Press) had
28 per cent of total national circula-
tion in 1963. This proportion is rather
deceptive, because their share in the
circulation of English dailies was 60
per cent, Telugu 44 per cent, Ma rat hi
41 per cent, and Hindi 31 per cent.
Their share in Tamil circulation was
19 per cent and in Gujarati only 3
per cent. They had no share whatever
in Bengali, Kannada and Malayalam.
English dailies provided more than 56
per cent of their total circulation.
There were roughly 11 major 'pure'
newspaper groups in the sense that
their controlling interests had practi-
cally no interest in industrial activi-
ties. These 11 groups had 23 per cent
of total national circulation. Two of
them, however, accounted for 84 per
cent of the circulation of all Bengali
dailies, and one had 34 per cent of
Tamil circulation. The share of all
the 11 groups in English dailies was
22 per cent, Hindi 13 per cent, Guja-
rati 22 per cent, Kannada 28 per cent
and Malayalam 27 per cent.
THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY
Whether one takes only the five in-
dustrial groups or all the sixteen
groups, the concentration of circulation
is high. In languages like Gujarati,
Kannada and Malayalam, where the
concentration appears to be low, there
are relatively few dailies.
Dailies are highly localised so
far as the centres of publication
are concerned but the circulation of
leading dailies is spread over a wide
area. Out of 503 dailies at the end
of 1963, 204 were published from
State capitals, 185 from cities with
population exceeding 100,000 and
only 114 from smaller towns, Bombay
had 36 dailies, Calcutta 25, Madras
23, and Delhi 20, making a total of
104 from metropolitan centres.
The precise area-wise circulation of
metropolitan and other dailies is not
available, but the leading metropolitan
dailies sell a large part (actually the
larger part in many cases) of their
copies to readers outside the metro-
politan centres. Restrictions on the
import and use of newsprint and
growth of population in large cities
have tended to restrict the outstation
circulation of metropolitan dailies in
1962 and 1963. While the number of
dailies published from small towns has
increased, there is nevertheless, little
cloubt that dailies in India continue to
mean, in effect, metropolitan dailies
only.