NEW DELHI: If a government of India report is to be believed then the print medium need not fear the more clamorous electronic medium as far as circulation is concerned.

The 47th 'Press In India' report, prepared by the Registrar of Newspapers in India (RNI), reveals that the total circulation figure of newspapers jumped up from 11,52,53,948 copies in 2001 to 14,20,05,543 copies in 2002-03, registering an increase of more than 24 per cent.
 
 
The report also indicated that the challenges from the electronic medium have in no way hampered the growth of the print segment. The Indian reader still relishes detailed analysis in addition to hourly news bulletins and talks shows.

The present report having made a change from the calendar year to the financial year, contains an analysis for 15 months, that is from 1 January 2002 to 31 March 2003.

The increase can be attributed to the larger number of publishers submitting annual statements. During 2002-03, newspapers in Uttar Pradesh had a total circulation of 2,80,46,287 copies, followed by Delhi with 2,18,56,174 copies.

On 31 March 2003, the total figure for registered newspapers stood at 55,780, an increase of 7.35 per cent over the previous year.

The RNI report, the first on a financial year basis, was presented by Newspapers of India registrar G D Beliya to the information and broadcasting ministry secretary Pawan Chopra here today.

The report indicates that among multi-edition dailies, Dainik Bhaskar, publishing in Hindi with 18 editions, had the largest claimed circulation of 17, 17,294 copies, followed by the Times of India with 13,94,646 copies.

For single-edition dailies, Hindustan Times claimed a circulation of 11,12,160 copies, while The Hindu came second with a figure of 9,22,407 copies.

The circulation pattern also revealed that while big publishing houses dominated the metropolises, the medium and small newspapers with their local content influenced small town and rural areas.

Big newspapers claimed a circulation of 5,11,72,068 copies, while medium newspapers had 5,26,00,091 copies and small newspapers claimed 3,82,33,384 copies. Since many small newspapers perhaps do not send annual statements, these figures do not reflect their actual share in the circulation scenario, the RNI report said.

Out of the 7156 newspapers which sent their annual statements in 2002-03, 5371 were owned by individuals, while 950 were owned by joint stock companies.

Language-wise, Hindi dominated with 3410 newspapers, followed by English with 750. In circulation too, Hindi maintained its lead with 6,17,68,735 copies while English followed with 2,6213,142 copies.