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Newspapers are a form of print media and mass communication. They serve as a primary source of news, information, opinions and advertisements. A newspaper may be distributed on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. To launch a newspaper in India, it is mandatory to RNI registration from the Press Registrar General of India (PRGI).
In this article, we will take a look at the list of top 10 newspapers in India.
Our list of top newspapers in India includes the most popular newspapers in the country. These newspapers are famous for their wide readership and influence. Let’s take a look at them:
Founded In: 1838
Times of India, popularly abbreviated as TOI, is the largest circulated English-language daily newspaper in the world, across all formats (Broadsheet, Compact, Berliner and Online). The Times Group, a major media conglomerate, owns TOI.
The origins of this newspaper trace back to the year 1838. Presently, it is the nation’s first English newspaper choice with 55 editions that serve millions of Indian readers. The Times of India covers a wide variety of topics ranging from business and technology to cricket, entertainment, travel, real estate and more.
It began in 1838 as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce, originally created for British residents in western India. Initially published twice a week, it became a daily in 1851 and adopted the name The Times of India in 1861. By the early 1900s, it had already earned a strong reputation. Lord Curzon, then Viceroy of India, described it as “the leading paper in Asia.” Decades later, in 1991, the BBC listed it among the world’s top six newspapers.
Founded In: 1961
Economic Times is yet another newspaper in the list of top 10 newspapers in India. It was launched in 1961. The Times Group owns it and publishes it in English. It is available in all major Indian cities. As of 2012, it was the second most widely read English-language business newspaper in the world, after The Wall Street Journal, with a readership of over 800,000. 14 cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata among others, publish ET.
Its coverage revolves around the Indian economy, global finance, stock markets, commodity prices and other financial topics. Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. publishes this newspaper, with P. S. Hariharan as its founding editor and Bodhisattva Ganguli currently serving as editor.
Over the years, The Economic Times has expanded its presence through various platforms. In 2009, it launched its business news channel, ET Now. In 2018, it introduced ET Prime, a subscription-based business storytelling platform, currently headed by Shishir Prasad (as of 2022). Other initiatives include the portfolio management tool ET Portfolio and verticals like ETHRWorld and ETBrandEquity.
The publication has also featured personalities like author-publicist Aatish Jaisinghani for his insights into changing audience behavior and branding trends. To broaden its reach, The Economic Times launched a Hindi website in 2017 and by 2022, it had expanded into seven other Indian languages: Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada.
Founded In: 1878
The Statesman ranks among the top 10 newspapers in India. Founded in 1818, this English-language broadsheet daily publishes simultaneously from Kolkata, New Delhi, Siliguri, and Bhubaneswar. It evolved directly from The Friend of India and incorporates its legacy. The newspaper operates its national editorial office from Statesman House in Connaught Place, New Delhi, while its headquarters sit in Chowringhee Square, Kolkata. The Statesman Ltd. owns and manages the publication. The Asia News Network includes it as one of its members.
Since 1905, The Hindu has been a family-run publication, ever since S. Kasturi Ranga Iyengar acquired it from its original founders. Ownership remains with his descendants the Kasturi family, who continue to oversee the paper through the holding company.
Editorial leadership has mostly stayed within the family, with the exception of a brief two-year period under editor S. Varadarajan. In June 2023, former chairperson Malini Parthasarathy, Iyengar’s great-granddaughter, stepped down, citing ideological differences and expressing concern that her efforts to steer the paper away from editorial biases were becoming increasingly limited.
Founded In: 1942
Dainik Jagran is a major Hindi language daily newspaper in India. This newspaper ranked 5th globally in 2016 (by circulation) and topped the charts in India by 2022. According to the Indian Readership Survey for Q4 of 2019, it had a readership of 68.6 million. This made it the country’s most-read publication at the time. It’s published by Jagran Prakashan Limited, a media company listed on both the Bombay and National Stock Exchanges.
Dainik Jagran was founded in Jhansi - a district town in United Provinces (now known as Uttar Pradesh). Puranchand Gupta established it and published it in 1942. Before this, Gupta was a local magazine’s managing editor since 1939. He would regularly pay visits to Bombay to secure ads to publish in the magazine. Unfortunately, the newspaper suspended its publication soon after its establishment. This happened during the Quit India Movement.
Gupta decided in 1946 that Dainik Jagran’s launch should take place in Lucknow (back then the capital of United Provinces). To prepare for the newspaper launch, he got a building for rent and also sent machinery to set it up there. However, soon, he got to know that the newspapers National Herald and Pioneer were in the middle of launching their first Hindi language editions Navjeevan and Swatantra Bharat. That too, in the same city. As a result, Gupta quickly changed his plans and decided to launch the newspaper in Kanpur instead. The machine was sent to Kanpur, in which a new place was rented out. Finally, the newspaper launched on 21 September 1947.
Founded In: 1958
Dainik Bhaskar is a Hindi-language newspaper that is published daily in India. The owner of Dainik Bhaskar is the Dainik Bhaskar Group. It was the fourth-biggest newspaper in the world by circulation in 2016, according to the World Association of Newspapers and as of 2022, it was the largest daily in India, according to the Indian Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Dainik Bhaskar has 65 editions that are published in 12 states along with union territories in India. The Dainik Bhaskar Group also publishes Aha Zindagi Magazine, Divya Bhaskar (Gujarati) and DNA (English). It was India’s most read newspaper of the year 2015. Bhaskar means the rising sun. The rising sun graphic of the newspaper was meant to showcase a bright future.
In Bhopal, Dainik Bhaskar made publication of its first newspaper in the year 1948. However, the newspaper was known as Subah Savere back then. It was published in Gwailior with the English name Good Morning India, in the same year. The newspaper’s name was renamed as Bhaskar Samachar in 1957. Then in 1958, the name was changed again to Dainik Bhaskar.
Founded In: 1924
Hindustan Times is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. It is based in Delhi, and is the flagship publication of HT Media Ltd - an entity that the Birla family controls. Shobhana Bhartia, K.K. Birla’s daughter is the owner of Hindustan Times.
As a nationalist daily, it was established in Delhi by Sunder Singh Lyallpuri, the founder-father of the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Akali movement, and it was crucial to the fight for Indian independence.
In terms of circulation, Hindustan Times is among the biggest newspapers in India. As of November 2017, 993,645 copies were in circulation, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. After The Times of India, HT is the second most read English daily in India, according to the Indian Readership Survey 2014. With concurrent editions from New Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Patna, Chandigarh, and Ranchi, it is well-liked in North India.
The print locations for Jaipur and Nagpur were shut down in June 2006 and September 1997, respectively. In 2004, HT introduced HT Next, a young daily. Early in 2000, the Kolkata edition was released, followed by the Mumbai edition on July 14, 2005. The monthly children's magazine Nandan, the monthly literary magazine Kadambani, the English business daily Mint, and the Hindi daily Hindustan are additional sibling publications of Hindustan Times.
Like other newspapers, it includes a children's edition as well. The media firm owns the education-related business Studymate, the radio station Fever 104.0 FM, and the annual Luxury Conference, which has included speakers including Christian Louboutin, Gucci CEO Robert Polet, designer Diane von Fürstenberg, and Cartier MD Patrick Normand.
Founded In: 1948
Amar Ujala means ‘Immortal Brightness’. Founded in 1948 in Agra, Amar Ujala is one of the best newspapers in India 2025. It has a total of 22 editions across six states and two union territories. Overall, it covers 180 districts.
According to the 2019 Indian Readership Survey, it ranked fourth among Indian newspapers with 9.65 million daily readers. Amar Ujala, along with another Hindi newspaper, daily accounted for about 7 percent of the UP state’s Hindi newspaper readership in 1994.
Amar Ujala's five editions sold 4.5 lakh copies. Every day, the newspaper publishes a 16 - 18 page issue with supplements covering subjects including careers, entertainment, and leisure. One of the top Hindi news websites, Amarujala.com serves more than 60 million readers in India. Amarujala.com has 3.89 million YouTube subscribers and 8.4 million Facebook followers as of December 2022. Amar Ujala Web Services Pvt Ltd is the owner and manager of MyResultPlus.
Founded In: 1948
Deccan Herald is one of the leading newspapers in India. It is one of the top newspapers in India that is published from Karnataka. K.N. Guruswamy founded it and launched it on 17 June 1948. The Printers Mysore, a privately held company of the Nettakallappa family (heirs of Guruswamy), published it. Seven editions of Deccan Herald are printed in Bengaluru, Hubballi, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Davanagere, Kalaburagi, and Mysuru.
In March 1948, K. N. Guruswamy, bought a bar and restaurant named Funnel's, which was owned by an Irish couple, in order to find a suitable place for a news publishing enterprise. Since there was no such title at the time, Guruswamy, his close associates, and well-wishers agreed to start two newspapers from Bangalore despite his lack of experience in the field. Its original editor, veteran journalist Pothan Joseph, provided it with a solid foundation as an English-language publication.
When Deccan Herald first started out, it was an eight-page tabloid newspaper that cost one anna. Later on, it evolved into a broadsheet newspaper. In October 1948, Deccan Herald introduced Prajavani, a sister Kannada daily. Its initial editor was T. S. Ramachandra Rao. It has had a significant impact on Kannada popular culture and journalism. The group's further publications include the literary journal Mayura, which debuted in 1968, and the lifestyle magazine Sudha, founded in 1965 and edited by E.R. Sethuram.
The company didn't break even until 1956, eight years after its debut. In the past, Guruswamy had to rely on bank loans and sell all but three of the 35 buildings he had bought with the money he made from excise taxes. By 1986, Guruswamy had left the liquor industry. During the 1950s and 1960s, Guruswamy's adopted son K. A. Nettakallappa, who went on to become a renowned journalist, played a significant role in the expansion of the company. However, he passed away at the young age of 47. Ramachandra Rao, editor of Prajavani, and Nettakallappa are recognized for being instrumental in the establishment of the Press Club of Bangalore.
Founded In: 1875
The Statesman is one of the top 10 newspapers in India. Established in 1818, The Statesman is a broadsheet daily newspaper in English that is published concurrently in Kolkata, New Delhi, Siliguri, and Bhubaneswar. It is directly derived from and integrates The Friend of India. With its national editorial office located in Statesman House, Connaught Place, New Delhi, and its headquarters located at Statesman House, Chowringhee Square, Kolkata, it is owned by The Statesman Ltd. The Asia News Network counts it as one of its members.
The typical circulation of the Statesman is about 234,000 during the week, and 250,000 for the Sunday. This makes it one of West Bengal, India's top English-language newspapers. The Statesman is a direct descendent of two newspapers: The Friend of India, published in Calcutta (now Kolkata), and the Indian Statesman, based in Bombay (now Mumbai). Robert Knight, the former chief founder and editor of The Times of India, founded Indian Statesman. On January 15, 1875, Knight combined the two publications into Indian Statesman and New Friend of India. The present name was later adopted by the paper. In 1927, it acquired The Englishman, its former rival.
A British corporate group ran the Statesman until the middle of the 1960s. Then, it was sold to a collection of businesses led by N A Palkhivala. Pran Chopra was the first editor under the new ownership. The World Press Review, New York, presented then-editor S Nihal Singh with the coveted International Editor of the Year Award in 1978 for his opposition to the Emergency (1975–77).
Founded In: 1932
P. Varadarajulu Naidu established the English-language Indian daily newspaper The Indian Express in 1932. It is owned by the Indian Express Group and has its headquarters in Noida. Later on, Ramnath Goenka took control. The group was divided among the family members in 1999, eight years after Goenka's death in 1991 [2]. The Mumbai-based northern editions kept the original Indian Express name with the prefix "The" added to the title, while the southern editions adopted the moniker "The New Indian Express."
An Ayurvedic physician named P. Varadarajulu Naidu founded the Indian Express in Chennai in 1932, and his Tamil Nadu press published it. He quickly ran into financial troubles and sold the newspaper to Swaminathan Sadanand, who founded a nationwide news agency called The Free Press Journal. The Indian Express launched its Tamil edition, Dinamani, in 1933 when it opened a second office in Madurai. Sadanand lowered the newspaper's price and made a number of changes. Due to financial troubles, he sold convertible debentures to Goenka for a portion of his stake. Sadanand lost control of Indian Express in 1935 following a lengthy legal battle with Goenka and the eventual demise of The Free Press Journal. Goenka, in 1939, purchased another well-known Telugu daily newspaper Andhra Prabha.
The three dailies Andhra Prabha, Dinamani, and Indian Express were frequently referred to as the Three Musketeers. Manoj Kumar Sonthalia and Viveck Goenka, two of Goenka's grandsons, divided the group in two following his passing in 1991. All of the Southern editions of Indian Express Mumbai, combined under the name Express Publications Madurai Limited and had their headquarters in Chennai, went to Sonthalia, while all of the North Indian editions went to Viveck Goenka. On July 8, 1996, Indian Express started publishing online every day. The Indian express website, after five months, received "700,000 hits every day, except on weekends when it fell to 60% of its normal levels".
In this blog post, we mentioned the list of top newspapers in India. All of them are registered with and authorized by the Press Registrar General of India (PRGI). If you want to publish your own newspaper in India, connect with Registrationwala’s consultants. We will help you secure RNI registration from PRGI.
Disclaimer: This article is based on the author’s personal opinion and may or may not represent views of the general public, institutions or organizations.
Q1. Which newspaper is the best newspaper in India?
A. While we cannot name a single newspaper as being the best newspaper, some of the best newspapers in India include Times of India, The Hindu and Economic Times.
Q2. Which newspaper was the first newspaper to be launched in India?
A. The first newspaper launched in India was Hicky's Bengal Gazette. It was also known as the Calcutta General Advertiser.
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