It may be surprising but Urdu papers and periodicals have the third highest circulation, preceded by Hindi and English papers.
The 55th Annual Report of Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) for 2010-11 titled “Press in India” says that Telugu is fifth in the number of newspapers published in India.
The highest number of newspapers were published in Hindi (7910), followed by English (1406), Urdu (938), Gujarati (761), Telugu (603), Marathi (521), Bengali (472), Tamil (272), Oriya (245), Kannada (200) and Malayalam (192).
In terms of circulation, according to the report, Hindi newspapers continued to lead with 15,54,94,770 copies followed by English with 5,53,70,184 copies. Urdu press had a figure of 2,16,39,230 copies.
While globally, print is going through recession, Indian print media is growing in India by 6.25%. Both number and circulation of registered newspapers have gone up. Hindi publications lead followed by English at No. 2 and Urdu at No. 3.
Some other interesting details:
–The total number of registered newspapers stood at 82,237.
–4853 New newspapers were registered during 2010- 11.
–The percentage of growth for registered publications over the previous year was 6.25%.
–RNI approved 13,229 titles for the year 2010 ending March 31st 2011.
–The largest number of newspapers and periodicals registered in any Indian language was in Hindi with a figure of 32,793. English had the second largest number of newspapers and periodicals which was 11,478.
–The total circulation of newspapers stood at 32,92,04,841 as against 30,88,16,563 copies in 2009- 10.
