Monday, the ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) announced that advertisement rates charged by the government on the print media are going to rise by 26 percent, effective December 1, 2025. A government statement explained that the reviewed rates will help the newspapers to bolster their revenue base as they continue to struggle with increased costs of doing business and stiff competition posed by the digital platforms.
According to an I&B official, the increase in the rate would facilitate much-needed revenue assistance to the print media, more so at a time when it has been competing with the other numerous media outlets and with the current costs duly increasing over the past few years. The government emphasized that the action would be beneficial to hold on to the operations, the quality journalism and the local news projects, especially in the smaller towns and regions.
Under the new system, ad in black and white in the daily newspapers of one lakh share has risen by 59.68 to 47.40 per square centimeter compared to the previous 59.68 per square centimeter. The government has also put in place premium rates on color adverts and preference positioning that will give newspaper more opportunity to reach maximum revenue on government adverts.
Rates (print advertisements) had last been adjusted by the Central Bureau of Communication (CBC), which places adverts on behalf of the different ministries in January 2019 in accordance with the suggestions of the 8th Rate Structure Committee (RSC). Before that, there was a revision of the rates in 2013 whereby the rates were increased to 19 percent compared to the rates in 2010.
The latest rise and the establishment of the 9 th RSC took place in November 2021 and concluded its discussions in August 2023, following the recommendations of the 9 th RSC. During this, the committee received the submission by the most important newspaper associations such as the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) and the All India Small Newspapers Association. The panel had looked at several factors in view such as inflation, increasing newsprint prices, wages paid to employees and costs of production until it made the final recommendations in September of 2023.
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