Govt introduces merit-based category system, hikes ad rates for newspapers

JAMMU: Paying heed to long-pending demand of publications, the state government on Thursday made first revision in four years, announcing a significant hike in the advertisement rates for the newspapers and other periodicals, besides introducing category-wise advertisement rates for the first time, bringing it in line with all other states across the country.
This move was long awaited, especially after the government increased the advertisement budget for newspapers substantially by over 50% in past three years, going up from Rs 20 crore in 2014-15 to a whopping Rs 30 crore for 2017-18.
In the official order released on Thursday, the government introduces categories system, dividing the newspapers and other periodicals into four categories as announced in its Advertisement Policy-2016, in a bid to ensure judicious and merit-based rates for each category on the basis of circulation, reach, content, number of editions, getup, and other parameters.
In the category A, it has put newspapers with circulation per publishing day for 25000 copies or more for English, besides 20000 copies or more for newspapers in other languages. The newspapers in category B include English newspapers ranging from 15000-25000 copies a day and other languages' newspapers ranging from 12000-20000 copies; while those in category C and D include those with circulation 5000-15000 copies/ 4000-12000 copies and 1000-5000 copies and 800-4000 copies, respectively, for English/other languages.
The Government in today's order also covered all the segments of newspapers including weeklies, fortnightlies, bi-weeklies and monthly magazines in the new rate structure announced today.
As per the revised rate structure, the new rates for front page in multi-colored dailies would be Rs 135 per column/per cm for Category 'A', Rs 123 for Category 'B', Rs 118 for Category 'C' and Rs 115 for Category 'D', for inner page in multi colored Rs 110 has been fixed for category A, Rs 95 for B, Rs 90 for C and Rs 85 for D category, for inner Black & White, Rs 100 for A category, Rs 85 for B, Rs 80 for C and Rs 75 for D category and for multi colored back page, Rs 125 for A category, Rs 115 for B, Rs 110 for C and Rs 105 for D category.
In respect of Black & White dailies, the new rates for Black & White front page would be Rs 125 for A category, Rs 110 for B, Rs 105 for C and Rs 100 for D category, for Black & White inner page, Rs 100 for A, Rs 85 for B, Rs 80 for C and Rs 75 for D category, for Black & White back page, Rs 110 for A, Rs 100 for B, Rs 95 for C and Rs 90 for category D.
Similarly, is respect of Weekly/Fortnightly/Monthly Multi-colored newspapers, the new rates fixed for multi colored front page Rs 115 for A category, Rs 110 for B, Rs 100 for C and Rs 90 for D category, for multi colored inner page Rs 100 for A, Rs 90 for B, Rs 80 for C and Rs 75 for D category, for Black & White inner page, Rs 85 for A, Rs 75 for B, Rs 70 for C and Rs 65 for D and for multi colored Rs 105 for A, Rs 100 for B, Rs 95 for C and Rs 85 for category D.
Meanwhile for Weekly/Fortnightly/Monthly Black & White, for Black & White front page Rs 105 has been fixed for A category, Rs 95 for B, Rs 90 for C and Rs 80 for category D, for Black & White inner page Rs 85 for A, Rs 75 for B, Rs 70 for C and Rs 65 for category D, while the rates for Black & White back page, Rs 100 for A, Rs 90 for B, Rs 85 for C and Rs 75 for D category.
"The new rates would be applicable prospectively subject to the categorization of the empaneled newspapers/other periodicals in light of Clause (3) of the Advertisement Policy-2016," the order said adding that the Department of Information would restrict the annual expenditure on account of government advertisements strictly as per the authorized budget allocation.
Pertinently, the Department of Information has already started the process for categorization of the newspapers and other periodicals and has put the information provided by the newspaper owners/editors on the Departmental website to seek objections from the stakeholders. A committee has also been constituted to finalize the categorizationof the newspapers so that the new rate structure could be implemented effectively.
As per the previous rate structure which was notified in the year 2013, the rates for publication of advertisements on front page in multi-color dailies was Rs 88 per column/per cm while for back page in multi-color dailies the rate was Rs 77. Similarly, the rates for front page of black and white dailies was Rs 67 and for inner pages in all kinds of offset daily newspapers was Rs 56. The rates for publication of advertisements in weeklies, fortnightlies, periodicals, lithos etc was Rs 46.