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Wednesday, Oct 03, 2007
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National

New advertisement policy announced

Special Correspondent

More support for small and medium papers

Papers with six months experience can empanel with DAVP
English papers to get 30 p.c. of all advertisements

NEW DELHI: The Government has evolved a new advertisement policy to increase support to small and medium newspapers besides encouraging the print media in tribal languages and Urdu.

The new policy of the Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity (DAVP) was unveiled by Union Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi here on Tuesday.

The Minister said it was aimed at increasing support through the DAVP to newspapers in languages such as Bodo, Dogri, Kashmiri, Khasi, Konkani, Maithili, Manipuri, Nepali, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi and Urdu. Also, it will help tribal language newspapers published in Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and the North-Eastern States.

Newspapers in these languages will now be able to empanel with the DAVP even if their circulation is less than 500 copies. Earlier, only newspapers in Sanskrit were entitled to this concession. Also, newspapers in all these languages can apply for empanelment with six months of publication experience as against the earlier requirement of a minimum of 12 months. As for all other regional language small and medium newspapers, they can apply for empanelment after 18 months; down by half from 36 months.

As per the new policy, 50 per cent of all DAVP advertisements in rupee terms will go to big newspapers, 35 per cent to medium newspapers and 15 per cent to small publications. Earlier, 60 per cent of all advertisements had gone to big newspapers with medium and small newspapers given 30 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.

Across the three slabs, English newspapers will now get 30 per cent of all advertisements while Hindi and other languages will get 35 per cent each. Earlier, English newspapers were entitled to 50 per cent of all advertisements. Further, the Government has relaxed the circulation check requirement. Once the policy becomes effective, there will be no circulation check of newspapers with circulation of up to 25,000 against the existing limit of 6,000.

Though the broad contours of the policy are more or less final, the Ministry has decided to allow room to factor in the views of stakeholders. Their suggestions will be accepted till the month-end after which the policy will be finalised within a month.

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