In India, the Government uses print media to secure wide coverage of messages through various newspapers and journals. Print media as a traditional media plays a significant role in the development communication. In India, print media strengths have largely been shaped by its historical experience and, in particular, by its association with the freedom struggle as well as movements for social emancipation, reform, and amelioration.

Given national literacy rates as low as 51%, the very limited reach of newspapers and magazines, and the distinctly urban educated readership profile, the role of print media has been defined more in terms of information dissemination and advocacy. The picture is a lopsided one: circulation figures are rapidly increasing as are advertising revenues, but this is especially true of English publications, which account for 71% of the total ad revenue of members of the Indian Newspaper Society.

A key feature of these publications, unfortunately, is the increasing preponderance of glossy, ad-friendly film and TV-based reporting. That the sole trendsetter in this increasing corporatization of the fourth estate, The Times of India, also ranks 10th among the top-selling newspapers in the world, is no coincidence. Given the increasing costs of newsprint and production, and the pressure of market imperatives, newspaper houses have followed the piper in carrying ad -friendly fluff at the cost of more serious development and health reporting. Leading dailies have over the last few years dropped their special sections devoted to development and health. The low literacy rates and high production costs have also stymied the possibilities of smaller alternative publications that could potentially reflect the concerns of the development sector.

Today various modern and sophisticated technologies are using by the print media in both developed and under-developed countries and they also face stiff competition from electronic media. The circulation trends of the print media: newspaper and magazines in India and other few countries and also that how the role of print media in the development communication is changing in recent era needs to be studied. It also concentrates on what is the impact of new electronic media on the print media.

Post 1947, newspapers in India had a choice to make – either align with the government and support all its initiatives or act as a critique to the newly democratized country and its head. Newspapers at first acted as unofficial sponsors of its various initiatives and schemes. The five year plan especially came highly endorsed by the national newspapers. Most of the newspapers in India came into existence post independence. Today thousands of magazines and newspapers are in circulation. Whilst in the early days of democracy, the Indian government enjoyed full support of the media houses.

Today, due to the changing and advanced technology used in printing and communication media, print media get huge importance in mind of people. So it‘s become important to study how the trend and role of print media is changing in development communication.

Print has more than 10000+ unique titles in India. 46% of the registered publications are in Vernacular language. There are two sources of information for print evaluation – Indian Readership Survey & National Readership Survey. The Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) is a body that ratifies the circulation figures of the publications but is not used as a primary source for evaluation of publications. Out of these above survey NRS has not been updated since 2006, while IRS updates its survey results every quarter. The IRS provides both the Average Issue Readership (AIR) which based on whether the respondent has read a publication within its last period of publication (last one day for dailies, last one month for monthlies etc) as well as Total Readership. It covers both Urban & Rural India under  its  survey  representing  around  876  Million.

This is a list of the newspapers in India by average circulation (in millions) for the six month period ended March 31, 2011. These figures are compiled by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

	Newspaper	Language	City	Daily Circulation	Owner
1	Times of India	English	Various cities and states	3.146	Owned by Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd.
2	Dainik Jagranदैनिक जागरण	Hindi	Various cities and states	2.168	Owned by Jagaran Prakashan Ltd
3	Malayala Manoramaമലയാള മനോരമ	Malayalam	10 cities in Kerala, Bangalore, Mangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi,Dubai, and Bahrain	2.048	Owned by Malayalam Manorama Group
4	Eenadu	Telugu	Various cities and states	1.70 [2]	Founded in 1974, owned by Ramoji Group
5	The Hindu	English	Various cities and states	1.46	Founded in 1878, owned by Kasturi & Sons Ltd., exposed theBofors scandal
6	Sakshi	Telugu	Various cities and states	1.45 [3]	Owned by Jagathi Publications., Mrs YS Bharathi Chairperson of the Group
7	Deccan Chronicle	English	Various cities and states	1.349	Owns Deccan Chargers franchise of the Indian Premier League
8	Ananda Bazar Patrikaআনন্দবাজার পত্রিকা	Bengali	Kolkata, West Bengal	1.277	Owned by Ananda Publishers
9	Amar Ujalaअमर उजाला	Hindi	Various cities and states	1.230	Mainly prominent in the Hindi heartland
10	Dainik Bhaskarदैनिक भास्कर	Hindi	Various cities and states	1.147	Also published as the Divya Bhaskar in Gujarat
11	Hindustan Times	English	Various cities and states	1.143	Owned by HT Media Ltd
12	Hindustanहिन्दुस्तान	Hindi	Various cities and states	1.142	Hindi extension of the Hindustan Times
13	Mathrubhumiമാതൃഭൂമി	Malayalam	10 Cities in Kerala, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, and New Delhi	1.077	Owned by The Mathrubhumi Group
14	Gujarat Samacharગુજરાત સમાચાર	Gujarati	Ahmedabad, Gujarat	1.051	Owned by Lok Prakashan Ltd.
15	Punjab Kesariपंजाब केसरी	Hindi	States of Punjab, Haryana	.902	Founder Jagat Narain was assassinated by Sikh militants on September 9, 1981
16	Dinakaranதினகரன்	Tamil	Various cities in Tamil Nadu and a few other cities	.901	Bought out by SUN TV group in 2005
17	Sakaalसकाळ	Marathi	Various cities in Maharashtra	.879	Launched English version Sakaal Times in 2008
18	Dina Thanthiதினத்தந்தி	Tamil	Various cities in Tamil Nadu and a few other cities	.854	Founded by S. P. Adithanar
19	Divya Bhaskarદિવ્ય ભાસ્કર	Gujarati	Ahmedabad, Gujarat	.840	Gujarati version of the Dainik Bhaskar
20	Aajआज	Hindi	Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh	.748
21	Financial Chronicle	English	Various cities and states	Unknown	Owned by Deccan chronicle holdings Ltd.
22	Economic Times	English	Various cities and states	.651	Owned by Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd.
23	The Telegraph	English	Various cities and states	.465	Owned by Ananda Publishers
24	Prajavaniಪ್ರಜಾವಾಣಿ	Kannada	Karnataka,various city in India	.565	Owned by Mysore Printers Pvt Ltd
25	The New Indian Express	English	Various cities and states	.309	Owned by Express Publications Ltd.
26	Deccan Herald	English	Various cities and states	.350	Owned by The Printers
27	Udayavaniಉದಯವಾಣಿ	Kannada	Karnataka, Bengaluru,Mumbai,Manipal	.185	Owned by Udayavani
28	Hadoti Express	Hindi	Baran	.Unknown	Owned by Mr.Ajay Singh
29	The Statesman	English	Various cities and states	.172	Owned by The Statesman Ltd.
30	The Hindu Business Line	English	Various cities and states	.163	Owned by Kasturi & Sons Ltd.
31	Business Standard	English	Various cities and states	.144	Owned by Business Standard Ltd. (BSL)
32	News Post	Hindi	Various cities and states	.125	Owned by Mr.Keshav Sen

With the emergence of the television and the new media (internet), it can be argued that newspapers are becoming irrelevant in terms of providing the latest news. However, both media has its own importance. The longevity of written media is much more than the electronic ones. It is the written media which has made history recordable and accurate. The age of an old manuscript found while digging a historical site gives information about the era in which it was written, which is not possible with electronic media. Print media is durable. Anyone can anonymously post articles and raise their voices. It is difficult to track the real owner of an article. With electronic media, anyone can copy any piece of information and present it as his own; plagiarism is at its peak these days.  The information provided by a newspaper is usually more authentic and genuine but it is not in case of electronic media. Electronic media depends mainly on electricity. In areas with frequent power cuts or in the rural areas, it is not a viable replacement for newspapers. Print media is easily accessible and widely read.  Anyone can buy it since it is cheaper and available in the remotest of the villages. In a country like India, subscribing to newspapers is cheaper than taking an Internet connection. Print media is local to the city or the region and carries information about the local events like a play being screened in the town or an inter-school chess tournament. Many newspapers in India and the world to some extent have started providing analysis of the news as well and so the demand and scope of newspaper is still sustain in competitive age. The coverage of the 2009 General Elections is the proof of that. Most newspapers had their own supplements dedicated to the elections and they scrutinized every detail of the elections in a way the television channels cannot provide. As of 2000, there are at least 41,705 newspapers in India and growing every day. The media whilst flawed is one of the most precious commodities in any democracy and as India celebrates another year of its emancipation, the media has a lot to celebrate as well – everyday for millions all over the country it makes this independence count substantial instead of some word uttered as a cliché at some cocktail party. The newspapers had the information in greater detail, depth and also had images which were not shown on TV.  In the recent era, many print media are also available in electronic forms. Shortly, the print media is now available at global level using the internet on which information  came in the print media format.