The Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Mr. I.K. Gujral, told the Rajya Sabha today [December 5, New Delhi] that Government was trying to shift advertisements more and more to smaller and medium newspapers. Mr. Gujral, who was replying to Mr. A.G. Kulkarni, said five big newspapers which received about 46.14 per cent of Government advertisements in 1966-67 got only about 27.53 per cent in 1968-69. “We are now shifting our emphasis from English medium to Indian language newspapers”, he added. The Minister also said the rates of advertisement in the five English newspapers varied from paper to paper. The “most expensive newspaper” which charged approximately Rs. 49 per square inch, according to his recollection, was The Times of India. Mr. Gujral said the total annual expenditure of Government on advertisement was only Rs. one crore. On the other hand, the private sector’s total annual budget for advertisement was about Rs. 30 crores. Government was only spending 51.9 per cent of its advertisement on English newspapers.
