History of Newspapers in India.

History of Newspapers in India

Introduction

                News papers and print media have played a vast role in the growth and development of the nation. During freedom struggle also it gave great contribution in awakening of people. And the whole history of newspaper has seen the glorious progress of India as well as its failure also. The print media is the silent witness of the past and present time of our country.

History of Newspapers

                Indian print media is at a massive business in the media world and its newspapers are said to offer majority of national and international news. The history of newspaper in India began in 1780, with the publication of the Bengal Gazette from Kolkata. 

               
                The advent of the first newspaper in India occurred in the capital city of West Bengal, Calcutta (now Kolkata). James Augustus Hickey is considered the "father of Indian press". He started the first Indian newspaper from Kolkata named the “Bengal Gazette” or “Calcutta General Advertise” in January, 1780. It was also known as “Hicky’s Bengal Gazette”. This first printed newspaper was a weekly publication. James Hicky was an Irish journalist. Hicky’s “Bengal Gazette” was known as fearless journalism.

                In 1789, the first newspaper from Bombay (now Mumbai), the 'Bombay Herald' appeared, followed by the 'Bombay Courier' in the following year. Later, this newspaper merged with the Times of India in 1861. Arthur Miller once quoted:

“A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.”

              These newspapers carried news of the areas under the British rule. The first newspaper published in an Indian language was the Samachar Darpan in Bengali. The first issue of this daily was published from the Serampore Mission Press on May 23, 1818. Samachar Darpan, the first vernacular paper was started during the period of Lord Hastings. In the same year, Ganga Kishore Bhattacharya started publishing another newspaper in Bengali, the 'Bengal Gazetti'. On July 1, 1822 the first Gujarati newspaper, the Bombay Samachar, was published from Bombay, which is still in existence. The first Hindi newspaper, the Samachar Sudha Varshan started its circulation in 1854. Since then, the prominent Indian languages in which newspapers had been published over the years are Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Urdu and Bengali languages. 

“He who is without a newspaper is cut off from his species.”

                The Indian language newspapers eventually took over the English newspapers according to the NRS survey of newspapers. The main reason was the marketing strategy that was followed by the regional papers, commencing with Eenadu - a Telugu daily started by Ramoji Rao. The second reason was the growing literacy rate. Increase in the literacy rate had direct positive effect on the rise of circulation of the regional papers. The people were first educated in their mother tongue according to their state in which they live for and eventually, the first thing a literate person would try to do is read the vernacular papers and gain knowledge about his own locality. Moreover, localization of news has also contributed to the growth of regional newspapers in India.      

                Indian regional papers have several editions for a particular state to offer a complete scenario of local news for the reader to connect with the paper. Malayala Manorama features about 10 editions in Kerala itself and six others outside Kerala. Thus regional papers in India aim at providing localized news for their readers.

                Eventually, the advertisers also realized the huge potential of the regional paper market, partly due to their own research and more owing to the efforts of the regional papers to make the advertisers aware of the huge market. These advertisers paid revenues to the newspaper house and in return publicized their products throughout the locality.

“A newspaper is a circulating library with high blood pressure.”

                Thus, newspapers in India not only acted as news providers but also promoters of certain market products. Some of the prominent newspapers in India in the recent times are The Times of India, The Statesman, The Telegraph, The Economic Times, Indian Express and so on.

                   The Economic Times is one of the India's leading business newspapers; carrying news about the Economy, Companies, Infrastructure, Trends in the Economy, Finance, Stocks, Forex and Commodities, news from around the world and from the world of politics besides editorial and various other features. The Malayala Manorama releases daily, weekly, monthly and annual publications from Kerala. Started in 1988 in Tamil and Telegu languages, it is now published in other regional languages like Hindi, Bengali, as well as in English. Among the various publications, the Malayala Manorama Daily has the largest circulation, selling about 11 lakhs 50 thousand copies daily.

                The Times of India was founded in 1838 as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce by Bennett, Coleman and Company, a colonial enterprise now owned by an Indian conglomerate. The Times Group publishes The Economic Times (launched in 1961), Navbharat Times (Hindi language), and the Maharashtra Times (Marathi language). 

“It is amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper.”

                Thee newspapers collected their news from the news agencies. India has four news agencies:

1)  Press Trust of India (PTI)

2)  United News of India (UNI)

3)  Samachar Bharti

4)   Hindustan Samachar

      Newspapers and magazines in India are independent and usually privately owned. About 5,000 newspapers, 150 of them major publications, are published daily in nearly 100 languages. Over 40,000 periodicals are also published in India. The periodicals specialize in various subjects but the majority of them deal with subjects of general interest.

     During the 1950s, 214 daily newspapers were published in the country. Out of these, 44 were English language dailies while the rest were published in various regional languages. This number rose to 2,856 dailies in 1990 with 209 English dailies. The total number of newspapers published in the country reached 35,595 newspapers by 1993 (3,805 dailies).

          Newspaper sale in the country has increased by 11.22% in 2007. By 2007, 62 of the world's best selling newspaper dailies were published in countries like China, Japan, and India. India consumed 99 million newspaper copies as of 2007, making it the second largest market in the world for newspapers. 

          Newspapers in India have almost created a huge industry in the nation. It publishes the largest number of 'paid-for titles' in the world. In 1997, the total number of newspapers and periodicals published in India was around 41705, which include 4720 dailies and 14743 weeklies.

Conclusion:

                However, in the last one decade the news media in India has changed rapidly. All the major news media outlets have an accompanying news website. A new class of newspapers in India is entirely internet based. 

“A newspaper that you are not reading can be used for anything, and the same people didn’t think it was immoral to wrap their garbage in newspaper.”