I fully endorse the entry of foreign direct investment in all sectors in the country, including that in print media. It will help shift the horizon of the sector from the local to the global, and will give greater, real independence to the media sector.

The entry of FDI in print media will globalize and give greater real independence to the sector. Arvind Sharma Managing Director Leo Burnett India

For the Indian advertisers, buyers and media planners, it will mean exposure to international practices and help them upgrade themselves accordingly

What has been done is logical. A lot of lobbying has prevented this from happening. Also the political class was not courageous enough. It‘s good this decision has been taken now. The momentum was too strong to allow FDI in print. They have allowed it in radio, TV, and several other sectors, so they could not hold it back any more. Once FDI in Indian print media progresses, they will know that there‘s no real problem.

With FDI being permitted, it‘s quite likely we will see a few new groups emerging because they will be able to access capital from the stock markets. Shekhar Gupta Editor-in-chief Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd

As far as our group is concerned, our ongoing restructuring will continue to fall into place. We have been planning for this. In the course of time, we will be studying an IPO, a foreign strategic partner. It fits into our plans and is fully in sync with what we wanted.

I think the whole ball game is changing.With FDI being permitted, it‘s quite likely we will see a few new groups emerging because they will be able to access capital from the stock markets. Earlier on, certain groups had made investment by foreign institutions a problem. I think wth FDI being permitted the FII investment issue also should be sorted out.

A holy cow has been laid to rest after almost half a century. This morning, the Indian government opened up the print media sector to foreign investment. The Union Cabinet has permitted 26 per cent foreign direct investment in the news and current affairs segment in the Indian print media and 74 per cent in the non-news, non-current affairs segment, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj told journalists in Delhi.
This has reversed a decision of the Union Cabinet in 1955 which disallowed foreign investment in print media and had had hitherto been considered as the defacto law.

The government took the decision despite solid resistance from select media groups which have lobbied hard to blockade foreign investment in print. Additionally, there has been a lot of opposition within the current government too. One of the media groups probably had an inkling that something like this would happen for it carried a front page story in the leading Indian English newspaper saying that the NDA and the opposition were against any FDI in print media today and that the government should not go back on its earlier decision to disallow FDI in print media.

Talking about the decision to open up the sector, Swaraj posed a question to journalists: "Why should one sector be left closed? We started with manufacturing went on to services and now we have gone on to print."