News publishers push for higher print ad rates as inflation rises

News publishers in India are seeking an upward revision in advertising rates as rising input costs put fresh pressure on the economics of print publishing.

The demand comes at a difficult time for the news business. While advertisers across sectors are gradually passing higher costs to consumers through price increases or reduction in packet sizes, publishers argue that print advertising rates have not moved in line with inflation in newsprint, fuel, logistics and other operating expenses.

Mohit Jain, Chief Operating Officer and Board Member, Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd (Times of India Group) and Vice Chairman of ABC, told e4m that the industry is facing a sharp cost burden. “The industry is under severe inflationary pressure, driven by the rupee’s depreciation, higher newsprint costs and rising fuel prices. Advertisers across categories — from dairy and FMCG to automobiles — have already passed higher input costs on to consumers through price hikes. Publishers are facing the same cost pressures and urgently need a corresponding revision in advertising rates,” he said.

According to Jain, publishers are looking at a 15-20 % correction in advertising rates to offset the pressure from newsprint and distribution costs. The argument from publishers is that the value of credible news environments has remained strong, but the cost of producing and distributing newspapers has risen materially.

M V Shreyams Kumar, Managing Director of Mathrubhumi, former President of INS and former Member of Parliament, said the economics of print publishing are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain without a correction in advertising rates.

“News publishers are facing pressures due to a steep rise in crude oil prices, newsprint costs and currency-related volatility. If advertising rates do not move in line with these realities, how are publishers expected to recover costs? We have been urging major advertisers to revise rates for some time, but the response has largely been non-committal. Advertisers have passed inflation on to consumers through higher product prices. Publishers also need room to recover the rising cost of credible news production,” he said, demanding at least a 25% hike in ad rates. 

Publishers say advertisers have so far been reluctant to act on these requests. “We have been seeking a rate increase for some time, but advertisers have not responded yet,” Jain and Kumar said. Notably, print continues to attract large national advertisers across categories, including FMCG, automobiles, consumer durables, retail, real estate, education and financial services.

According to Sujata Gupta, Secretary of DNPA, as the cost of producing credible journalism continues to rise, it is reasonable for publishers to periodically review their commercial pricing. She adds, “Any decision on ad rates, however, is a business decision that is taken independently by individual publishers based on their respective market dynamics.”

e4m reached out to Indian Society of Advertisers and several top advertisers in the FMCG and Auto categories. Their response was awaited till the time of writing these lines. Maruti Suzuki said the company is currently under maintenance shutdown and they can respond next week. 

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Cost pressure meets rate resistance

The pressure is not new. India’s print industry continues to command over ₹20,000 crore in advertising revenues, but growth has remained largely muted in recent years.

Print has long carried high fixed costs, from newsrooms and printing infrastructure to paper procurement and physical distribution. But the current inflationary cycle has made the gap between operating costs and advertising yields harder to ignore.

“Newsprint remains one of the largest cost heads for newspaper companies, and its pricing is linked closely to global paper supply, shipping costs and currency movements. For Indian publishers, any depreciation in the rupee against the dollar can increase the cost of imported newsprint. Fuel inflation adds another layer of pressure, particularly for publications with wide circulation networks,” publishers point out. 

Publishers' contention is that since advertisers routinely revise product prices when input costs rise, media owners should also be allowed to adjust advertising rates when the cost of producing the medium increases. 

“Advertisers and agencies weigh any rate increase against reach, readership, impact, category demand and alternatives across digital, television, outdoor and retail media. That makes the conversation more complex than a simple rate-card revision. Besides, the Indian Readership Survey has not been held since 2019,” said a marketer, requesting anonymity. 

Another marketer cited his constraints, “Print continues to offer trust, geographic depth and premium news environments, but advertisers are under their own pressure to optimise media spending. In many categories, marketing budgets are being scrutinised more closely, with greater emphasis on measurable outcomes and flexible media deployment.”

For Indian publishers, the challenge is twofold. On one side, print remains a significant revenue engine but faces rising physical costs. On the other, digital news is growing in importance but is being reshaped by traffic volatility, platform algorithms, changing consumption habits and unresolved questions around fair compensation from AI platforms.

Recent industry conversations have shown publishers experimenting with video, events, subscriptions, B2B services, newsletters, paywalls and bot-blocking strategies to reduce dependence on platform-led traffic. But these models take time to scale. Advertising, especially print advertising, remains an important revenue pillar for many legacy news organisations.

The rate discussion therefore comes down to a larger question: how should advertisers value news media at a time when the cost of credible journalism is rising and the economics of distribution are becoming more difficult?

Ad rates for digital publishers halved in a decade 

The government of India slashed rates for popular digital ad formats by nearly 50% over the past eight years, with the latest revision made in December 2024. For instance, the Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPTI) for the most common ad unit 320×250-pixel banner for Group A publishers —those with 50 lakh+ unique monthly users — has witnessed a steep decline over the years. In 2016, the rate stood at ₹45, remained the same in 2020, but has now fallen to just ₹25 in 2024.

“Publishers, however, were unable to persuade the government to revisit the pricing framework despite repeated concerns over the widening gap between official rates and the realities of a rapidly evolving digital advertising market,” quips a publisher.