While we Brits tentatively roll up our newspapers and politely push them into the recycling bin, others are staying loyal. We conceive the papers as a staple of traditional British culture, a time to reflect and thoughtfully engage in the world beyond our garden hedgerows. As George Orwell put it, newspapers are knitted into the ‘fabric of Britain, as central to Sunday as a roast dinner’. It was not just a bowl of Weetabix fuelling our nation, but also our daily printed paper that fed us in the mornings. However, although Britain has traditionally taken the lead in hosting the most avid newspaper readers globally, digitised news platforms have successfully persuaded us away from reading the papers at the breakfast table. Once considered the most efficient way to stay up to date with news prior to entering the office, the newspaper has been switched for the tablet, a gadget that has immediate access to the same news.

This shift is not universally the case. As we transition to slick tablets and online news outlets (it’s relatively easy to slide into a bag when one finds themselves on the tube at rush hour), India remains loyal to our old friend. Global statistics identify India as constituting the highest share of a population reading newspapers daily. An anomaly in global trends, India presents the modern world with a slightly comforting gesture of trust towards the printed newspaper. Over half of the Indian population source their news updates through print, while in the UK this stands at only 31%. Instead, we Brits consume most of our news via TV and an increasing amount sourced through social media platforms.

So why is India experiencing a boom in the newspaper industry? Whilst the UK’s printing press declines as revenues diminish, India’s print media sustains growth and attracts more advertisers, being valued at $2.86bn. Reasons for this can be attributed to rising literacy rates and the increasing availability of newspapers in regional languages, broadening and diversifying readership. As a consequence of a more competitive industry, pricing remain slow at around a tenth of the cost compared to the UK, affording families the ability to purchase two or three a day. 

As internet penetration continues to shape our habits and loyalties, we can be sure that trends are more vulnerable than ever to change. The newspaper industry will be forced to adapt and survive the force of digitisation on a global scale. If India continues to demonstrate an acceleration of newspaper readership while the UK embraces digital news, we are presented with the question: what does the future hold for the humble newspaper? Can it reinvent itself, or is its time finally coming to an end?