For the print industry, the year 2023 turned out to be a good opportunity to bounce back to the pre-Covid numbers, thanks to rapid technological advancements, improvement in economic conditions of buyers, decline in newsprint prices and crucial elections in four big states.

According to Statista, the value of the print industry in India stood at Rs 296 billion in 2019. This number dropped to Rs 190 billion in 2020 due to the pandemic and the industry has been trying to grow slowly and gradually every year since then. In 2023, the value was Rs 262 billion. Nevertheless, the latest Pitch Madison Advertising Report revealed print AdEx still commands 21 percent share in India and the report forecasts 11 percent growth in 2023.

Rajeev Beotra, Executive Director of HT Media, opines that 2023 has been a year of resilience and adaptation for the print media industry. The print has demonstrated its enduring value and relevance, especially post the Covid period, during the year.

Varghese Chandy, VP- Marketing, Advertising, and Ad Sales, Malayalam Manorama, too believes that 2023 has been a year of growth and an important year on the mediums’ journey to reach pre-covid levels.

ICRA had estimated the revenues for the print media industry to grow by 8-10 percent YoY in FY2024 supported by a pick-up in ad-spends by the government in view of the upcoming general elections and recovery in demand from key end-user industries (mainly, FMCG and Auto).

Top highlights 

The top highlights of the year, according to Beotra, were, the continued growth of regional and language print publications and AdEx in those markets.

Further, the visible K-shaped recovery of consumption, growth of AdEx in Luxury segments across categories and shrinking ad volumes across mass categories such as FMCG were other important highlights. There were also sectoral stresses in core categories such as Auto, E-comm and Handsets. The increased government spending on the back of large state elections also contributed to the growth of the sector.

“The print industry has seen a strong growth in the retail business as consumers flock back to physical stores. Other sectors which have performed strongly is real estate and education as we see buoyancy in these sectors. Government business also accelerated with several state elections underway,” he added.

Giving a peek into the regional newspaper industry, Chandy said 2023 was a year of retailers. “In Kerala, retail was the largest advertising category. Retail looks for immediate ROI, and for us, it is encouraging to see that the category advertised the most because it is a testament to the reach and cost effectiveness of print in Kerala. FMCG rediscovered print and the BFSI sector, including IPOs, increased its spends too.”

According to Jagran Prakashan MD Shailesh Gupta, the growth across several product categories, optimisation across various operations within organisations and a renewed sense of confidence with respect to the future direction were key highlights of 2023 for the medium.

The easing in newsprint prices, which had touched historically high levels in FY2023, was expected to support a 15-17 percent recovery rate in the industry players’ operating margins, he said.

Beotra said, “On the cost side, we are seeing a positive impact on the bottom line as inflation cools down and as newsprint prices soften further. Thereby allowing us to double down on the copy demand and increase circulation of copies. across markets for our publications.”

According to TAM AdEx, in H1 2023, ad space increased five percent over the corresponding period in 2022.

Where can the print improve? 

There is always room for improvement in the print industry and we are no exception, underlined Beotra. “Our key challenge is to win back on yields which saw a dip during Covid times. As our circulation gets back to near pre-Covid times, we are confident that we will be able to work with our advertisers on this aspect and focus on driving value for their brands.”

“We are also doubling down on providing a media-agnostic solution-based approach to our advertisers and have increased our focus on events and content-led solutions to offer holistic brand solutions,” he added.

Gupta says, “We can never have enough of ad volume growth. So, there are several categories where more effort needs to be put in by the industry to drive up advertiser confidence and resultant revenue growth.”

Malayala Manorama’s advertising for high-end mobile phones, consumer durables and real estate could have been better, shared Chandy.

Despite the challenges, the WARC consumer data report on Print (May 2023) says the print press consumption in India has remained higher than the global average and will continue to do so. It is estimated to stabilise at around 56 minutes per day in Q4 2023.

Beotra said, “Needless to say, consumer interest will feed the marketer’s interest too.”

Future Outlook 

Chandy sees 2024 as the year where the growth continues. “We are also hoping that more and more categories will rediscover print as a very effective medium for those who want instant results.”

The upcoming year looks good with several categories poised to drive growth, as per Gupta. “With the pace of change happening across the entire media industry, we foresee new avenues of growth. Advertisers have shown a renewed interest in print, and we’ve been at the forefront of driving some innovative campaigns which are delivering marketing goals.”

Beotra said, “We are optimistic on the growth of both top and bottom lines of our business

Next year being an election year, we are likely to see increased traction from the Government business.”

Also, as India chugs toward the five trillion-dollar economy, the growth will be much more spread across consuming classes and not just luxury and top-end, but also FMCG, Auto and Entertainment business along with continued growth in Luxury, Retail and Real estate categories, he concluded.