2. The Beginning The 1980s saw a boom in the publication of
magazines in India, not only in English but in the major Indian
languages as well. The Magazine boom was perhaps set off by the
launch of India Today in the mid-seventies, and the new look
Illustrated Weekly of India under the editorship of Khushwant
Singh.
3. They cover diverse topics such as politics, law, society,
women, the arts, travel, fashion, health, sports, and economy.
Broadly speaking, there are two types of magazines: general
interest magazines and special-interest niche (SIN) magazines.
Other magazines to be launched in quick succession in the early
eighties included Gentleman, Gentleman Fashion Quarterly (GFQ),
Onlooker, The Week, G.
4. . The new magazines introduced colour, gloss and a snazzy
style of reporting which personalised and dramatised issues and
events. Photographs, illustrations, charts and graphs enlivened
each page, and the focus was on soft features. High quality
printing on imported glazed paper lent the magazines an expensive
look. This pleased the advertising community immensely.
5. The boom continued into the 1990s despite the closure of
long-established magazines like The Illustrated Weekly of India,
Sunday and Bombay. The growth was spectacular in the case of
special interest magazines, especially those dealing with business
and finance, computers and electronics, fashion and
lifestyles.
6. The magazine boom almost went bust by the close of the
millennium, but by 2006 it was boom time again for magazines. In
2006 as many as 2600 magazine titles were registered with the
Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) At the Indian Magazine
Congress in 2007, the Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) claimed
that magazine advertising was growing faster than newspapers and
television - at 24% per annum as against 18% for newspapers and
television.
7. This was perhaps a consequence of the Governments policy of
opening up the print media to foreign investment. So while FDI in
the news sector was restricted to a 26% stake, the non-news sector
was permitted up to 100% FDI. In 2006-2007, the Information and
Broadcasting Ministry approved licenses for over a hundred non-news
international titles. But Readership Surveys by NRS and IRS and
circulation audits by ABC seemed to suggest that there was a
decline in magazine reading
8. News magazines were an exception though. India Today (with
editions in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Gujarati) was challenged by
Outlook and The Week, and later by Hard News, Alive, Tehelka, and
Covert.
9. Growth Nearly four out of every five Indian periodicals are
in the Indian languages. Hindi alone has more than 3,000
periodicals, followed by English with over 2,670. Periodicals in
Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi, Urdu and Telugu too
enjoy a fairly good circulation and readership. Out of a total of
6,343 periodicals published regularly (with a circulation of 91.3
million copies), 3,428 are weeklies, 955 fortnightlies, 1,471
monthlies, 219 quarterlies and 49 annuals. The circulation of the
weeklies is 50.5 million copies while that of the monthlies and
fortnightlies is 21.1 million and 12.3 million respectively. The
total readership of magazines is 359 million, 68% of which is in
Hindi.
10. Indian News Organisations
11. Some of the media Organisations are listed below Press
Information Bureau (PIB) Press Institute of India (PII) The Press
Council of India (PCI) Audit Bureau of Circulation Ltd. (ABC)
Registrar of Newspaper for India (RNI) Indian Newspaper Society
(INS) United News of India (UNI) [ News Agency] Press Trust of
India (PTI) [News Agency] Indo-Asian News Service (INAS) [News
Agency]
12. Press Information Bureau (PIB) Press Information Bureau
(known as PIB) is the nodal agency of the Government of India.
Press Information Bureau disseminates information to the print,
electronic and new media on government plans, policies, programme
initiatives and achievements. PIB is also the Government's nodal
agency to facilitate private media. Press Information Bureau was
set up in 1919 as a small Cell, the Press Information Bureau has
now grown into a nationwide network of eight Regional Offices and
34 Branch Offices.
13. Press Institute of India (PII) Founded in 1963, the Press
Institute of India, a first of its kind in Asia, is an independent,
non-profit trust, established to create and sustain high and
responsible standards of journalism required by a developing
country committed to democratic functioning. PII's training
workshops for journalists are conducted in- house or in cities and
rural areas of India. There is a strong focus on rural reporting,
development journalism and writing on women's empowerment, the
panchayat movement, the fight against child labour, the fight for
child rights, etc. Over the years, PII has trained thousands of
journalists
14. The Press Council of India (PCI) The Press Council of India
is a statutory body in India that governs the conduct of the print
media. It is one of the most important bodies that sustain
democracy, as it has supreme power in regards to the media to
ensure that freedom of speech is maintained. However, it is also
empowered to hold hearings on receipt of complaints and take
suitable action where appropriate. It may either warn or censure
the errant journalists on finding them guilty.
15. The Press Council of India (PCI) The Press Council of India
was first set up on 4 July 1966 by the Parliament on the
recommendations of the First Press Commission with the object of
preserving the freedom of the Press and of maintaining and
improving the standards of press in India. The present Council
functions under the Press Council Act 1978. It is a statutory,
quasi-judicial body which acts as a watchdog of the press. It
adjudicates the complaints against and by the press for violation
of ethics and for violation of the freedom of the press
respectively.
16. Composition of PCI The Press Council is headed by a
Chairman, who has, by convention, been a retired judge of the
Supreme Court of India (except for the first chairman, Justice J.
R. Mudholkar, who was a sitting judge of Supreme Court of India in
1968). The Council consists of 28 other members of whom 20
represent the press and are nominated by the press
organisations/news agencies recognised and notified by the Council
as all India bodies of categories such as editors, working
journalists and owners and managers of
17. Composition of PCI 5 members are nominated from the two
houses of Parliament and 3 represent cultural, literary and legal
fields as nominees of the Sahitya Academy, University Grants
Commission (U.G.C.) and the Bar Council of India. The members serve
on the Council for a term of three years. The present Chairman is
Justice Markandey Katju.
18. Complaints Procedure A complaint against a newspaper for
any publication the complainant finds objectionable and affecting
him personally, or for non-publication of any material, should
first be taken up with the editor or other representative of the
publication concerned. If the complaint is not resolved
satisfactorily, it may be referred the Press Council of India. The
complaint must be specific and in writing and should be
filed/lodged within two months of the publication of the impugned
news item in case of dailies and weeklies and four months in all
other cases, along with the original/photostat copy of the impugned
clipping (an English translation if the matter is in a South Asian
language).
19. Complaints Procedure The complainant must state in what
manner the publication/non-publication of the matter is
objectionable within the meaning of the Press Council Act, 1978,
and enclose a copy of the letter to the editor, pointing out why
the matter is considered objectionable. The editor's reply thereto
or published rejoinder, if any, may also be attached to it. A
declaration stating that the matter is not pending in any court of
law is also required to be filed.
20. Audit Bureau of Circulation ABC (India) was founded in
1948, India .The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) of India is a
non-profit circulation-auditing organization. It certifies and
audits the circulations of major publications, including newspapers
and magazines in India. ABC is a voluntary organization initiated
in 1948 and is presently operating in different parts of the world.
Until that time, the concept of circulation audit was yet to be
made in India and the publishers had no means to verify the actual
circulation number of publications that they used for advertising
and had to depend more on their
21. Audit Bureau of Circulation Publishers also found it
difficult to convince advertisers of the relative values of their
publication for the purpose of advertising. The benefit of ABC
certificates of circulation have been availed by advertisers,
advertising agencies, publishers and organizations connected with
print media advertising.
22. Criteria The Publisher should be a Member of Indian
Newspaper Society (INS) and the Publications should be registered
with Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI). Publisher members
must maintain essential books and records to facilitate a proper
ABC audit and also appoint an independent firm of Chartered
Accountants from amongst the approved panel of auditors named by
ABC. Admission of publishers to ABC membership is subject to a
satisfactory admission audit. ABC has a system of recheck audit and
surprise check audits of publications to be carried out as and
23. Registrar of Newspaper for India (RNI) Registrar of
Newspapers for India, more popularly known as RNI, is a government
office in India. It came into being on 1 July 1956, on the
recommendation of the First Press Commission in 1953 and by
amending the Press and Registration of Books Act 1867. The Press
and Registration of Books Act contains the duties and functions of
the RNI. On account of some more responsibilities entrusted upon
RNI during all these years, the office is performing both statutory
as well as some non-statutory functions.
24. Indian Newspaper Society The Indian Newspaper Society (INS)
(formerly Indian and Eastern Newspaper Society) acts as the central
organization of the Press of India, an independent body
authenticating circulation figures of newspapers and periodicals in
India. It is an organization which plays a major role in protecting
and promoting the freedom of press in India. The society was
founded in 1939. Its headquarters are at Rafi Marg, New Delhi.
25. Indian Newspaper Society INS membership comprises the
owners, proprietors and publishers of print media who discusses and
suggest various measures to the government regarding the problems
related to the newspaper industry. It is a kind of pressure group
which works to protect the interest of newspaper industry in
particular and print media in general. Indian newspaper industry
today faces problems ranging from rising cost and paucity of
newsprint to shrinking revenue from advertisement due to boom in
electronic media. The executive committee of INS represents the
current 990 members from newspapers, journals, periodicals and
magazines.
26. United News of India (UNI) United News of India (UNI) is
one of the two primary Indian news agencies. Established in 1961,
it works in collaboration with several foreign news agencies and
partners, including Reuters and DPA. UNI began its operations on
March 21, 1961,though it was registered as a company in 1959. Its
head office is located in New Delhi. It employs approximately 325
journalists around India and 250 "stringers" covering news events
in other parts of the world, with correspondents in Washington,
London, Dubai, Islamabad, Dhaka, Colombo, Kathmandu, Singapore and
Sydney. UNI serves roughly 1000 subscribers globally. United News
of India is the first News Agency to place its Stringer in remote
Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
27. Press Trust of India (PTI) Press Trust of India (PTI) is
the largest news agency in India. It is headquartered in Delhi and
is a nonprofit cooperative among more than 450 Indian newspapers
and has a staff of about 2,000 writers spread 150 offices nation
wide. It took over the Indian operations of the Associated Press
and Reuters soon after India's independence on August 15, 1947 . It
provides news coverage and information of the region in both
English and Hindi.
28. Press Trust of India (PTI) It exchanges information with
several other news agencies including 100 news agencies based
outside India, such as Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, The
New York Times and Bloomberg L.P.. Major Indian subscribers of PTI
include The Hindu, Times of India, the Indian Express, the
Hindustan Times, the All India Radio and Doordarshan. PTI has
offices in Bangkok, Beijing, Colombo, Dubai, Islamabad, Kuala
Lumpur, Moscow, New York and Washington D.C
29. Indo-Asian News Service (INAS) Indo-Asian News Service or
IANS is a private Indian news agency. The Indo-Asian News Service
(IANS) was established in 1986, initially to serve as an
information bridge between India and its thriving diaspora in North
America. Today it is a full- fledged, 24 by 7 agencies putting out
the real- time news from India, South Asia and news of interest to
this region around the world. IANS is divided into six Strategic
Business Units (SBUs): IANS English, IANS Hindi, IANS Publishing,
IANS Business Consultancy, IANS Solutions, and IANS Mobile.
30. Assignment Learn about 5 major International News Agencies
1. Agence France-Presse 2. Reuters 3. BBC 4. Associated Press 5.
Bloomberg