The print media industry is on a strong recovery path as the ad space per publication in 2022 grew by 16% compared to 2021, according to a report by AdEx India, a division of TAM Media.

Ad volumes per publication have exceeded the 2019 figure in indexed growth, while the year 2020 saw the greatest decline in ad space, said the report.

The latest Pitch-Madison report said print media has rebounded strongly, posting 11% growth to reach an ad market size of ₹18,470 crore in 2022 and successfully regaining 92% of the pre-Covid ad market size.

Sivakumar Sundaram, chairman of the Executive Committee of Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL), said the company is already well above 2019 ad volumes with one more month left in the financial year. BCCL is the publisher of The Economic Times.

"We will cross the 2018 volumes as well in the next couple of weeks. The growth has been broad-based and can be seen across various categories like real estate, BFSI, retail, and consumer durables. The heartening fact is that our volumes from the retail sector have come back strongly this year," said Sundaram.

TAM Media CEO LV Krishnan said that not only have old advertisers come back to print, but a lot of new advertisers have also come in. He said the ad volume growth is driven more by regional publications, with English also contributing to the overall growth. "Specifically, a lot of new advertisers, particularly from the small and medium business (SMB) segment, started advertising in print," he said.

Maruti Suzuki India senior executive officer (marketing & sales) Shashank Srivastava said print continues to remain a popular medium due to a variety of factors, such as low cover price and ability to deliver original and credible content.

"For marketers, cross-media studies have shown that print media can provide a boost to other channels when used in an omnichannel mix and that it scores highly for audience reach and brand recall, with opportunities for innovations, hence making it a choice of medium for us and other advertisers," he said. While noting that print has remained an integral part of Maruti Suzuki's media mix, he added that the company's ad spend on the medium in 2022-23 was fuelled by new launches.

The TAM report said the average ad volumes (Col*Cms in 000) witnessed consistent growth in each quarter of 2022, with October registering the highest monthly ad volumes with a 14% share. The top 4 sectors - services, education, auto, and retail - had a 50% share of the print ad space. Further, the top 10 categories accounted for 38% of ad share, with 'cars' overtaking 'two wheelers' as the top advertising category in print.

SBS Biotech and Maruti Suzuki India were the top two advertisers, followed by Reliance Retail, which moved to third place in 2022 from tenth place in the previous year, as per the study. In 2022, Patanjali Ayurveda and Samsung India Electronics joined the top 10 list. During the year, a total of 185,000-plus brands were advertised in print, with the number of brands going up by 10%.

FIIT-JEE and Maruti car range retained their positions as the top two brands that advertised in print. As per the report, 400+ categories registered positive growth in terms of ad volumes, with readymade garments, cellular phones (smartphones), schools, and retail outlets (jewellers) seeing the highest ad volume growth. Patanjali Wellness and LIC-IPO were the top exclusive advertisers and brands, respectively, during the year. Overall, 83,000+ advertisers and 100,000+ brands advertised exclusively in the medium. The report said full-page ads were the most preferred ad position for print advertisers.