At the outset, it should be borne in mind that the cardinal word when referring to size of the Indian book publishing industry, whether in this post or anywhere else for that matter is "estimates" - unfortunately, there are no proper studies of the Indian book publishing industry so far.
The Strategist (October 21, 2008) provides estimates of the size of the Indian publishing industry, based on data provided by Technopak Advisors.
IT CONSISTS OF books, magazines and newspapers.
THE BOOKS MARKET IS estimated to be Rs 13,000 crore (~ US$ 2.9 Billion) , which is segmented into education and non-education books market.
THE MAGAZINES market is estimated to be 15 per cent of the total market, which is Rs. 3,000 Crore (~ US$670 Million).
THE NEWSPAPERS market is estimated at Rs 4,000 crore (~ US$ 890 Million)
Technopak Advisors haven't mentioned the basis for their estimates, but the above estimates from Technopak Advisors for the Indian book market are a good 30% higher than the estimates provided in the The India Publishing Market Profile 2008 (also only rough estimates based on hearsay and not any study) which had suggested that
The total book market was worth around Rs. 10,000 Crore, of which
The school book market may be worth around Rs. 3,500 Crore
The higher education book and journal market may be worth around Rs. 2,500 Crore
The trade book market may be worth Rs. 4,000 Crore, of which the English language segment may be worth about Rs. 2,400 Crore
The figures from Technopak Advisors for newspaper and magazine revenues in India are much much lower than other estimates for the same.
According to the 2008 PriceWaterhouseCoopers report
Current size in 2007 – Rs 149 billion (Rs. 14,900 Crore) ; Rs 128 billion (Rs. 12,800 Crore) in 2006
Projected size in 2012 – Rs 281 billion (Rs. 28,100 Crore) projected for 2012
Growth in 2007 over 2006 – 16%; 14% CAGR for 2008-12
According to a recent article in Knowledge@Wharton
Magazine advertising revenues are Rs. 1,400 crore, while circulation revenues are Rs. 500 crore.
For newspapers, the corresponding figures are Rs. 8,000 crore and Rs. 5,000 crore.
PwC projects growth in magazine advertising revenues over the next five years at 16%, compared with 10% growth for circulation revenues. For newspapers, the numbers are further skewed, at 16% and 8%, respectively.
Hi,
Quite an informative post. The stats. and numbers are interesting.
But, it seems to me that even if these numbers reveal something substantive, there are underlying patterns and trends which they seem to hide (not just miss!). For example, who (or which persons) are reading what (kind or type of materials), etc. Thus, it would be instructive and nice to know, urban-rural, city-town-other, professional-other affiliations, usage of other media, age group (age group-wise) details etc. of the readers (and these buyers).
I was thinking that there are defn. broad trends to these above kinds of differentiators (urban-rural etc., ) and also that it is not terribly hard to (or to be able to) ascribe some general causes for these trends (e.g. increased internet penetration, more money to spare etc. Thanks.
Narendra
Posted by: Narendra | November 24, 2008 at 05:39 PM
top 10 english magazine in India?
Posted by: vaishak | May 15, 2009 at 10:23 AM
That text has brightened my mind to this issue. I'm huge fan of the writer. I' m awaiting for the more texts.
Posted by: volunteer in india | July 06, 2011 at 11:36 AM
With blogs like this around I don't even need website anymore. I can just visit here and see all the latest happenings in the world.
Posted by: blog | November 13, 2013 at 02:56 PM