Title crunch stalls foreign mags' entry

Non-availability of titles of several known international magazines with the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) has virtually stopped the entry of over two dozen foreign magazines in the country. These include Popular Science, Medicine, New Scientist, The Banker and Automation & Drives. Applications of these international magazines across genres have been returned by the ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) despite them having got other mandatory clearances, say senior officials in the I&B ministry.

Magazines in genres like medicine, science and technology, and legal publications are the worst affected as their titles are more often found to be already registered with the government, sources say.

"We are facing acute problem of giving a go-ahead to number of international magazines as their titles are already registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI). And as per the norms, these magazines cannot publish in India under any other name than the one they use abroad," a senior I&B official said. Since 2006 , it is estimated that the ministry has turned down at least 25 applications from international publishers on the ground ‘title not available’.

Award of titles for publications are mandatory under RNI norms. RNI is the body that enforces the provisions of 'Press and Registration of Books Act' (PRB Act), under which comes the entire business of publication of newspapers, magazines, periodicals and books among others. "Titles are important because as per Section 19 of the PRB Act, publishers have to disclose information on their circulation, ownership, among others. We are likely to meet the representatives of the publishing industry soon to explore possible solutions to this problem," said a senior I&B official.

According to the magazine industry sources, this is one of the main reasons why international publishers shy away from entering India. "Unfortunately, our norms on title registration leave ample scope for smaller firms and local publishers to take undue advantage. They register these titles in the hope of selling them later to 'interested' publishers that may be desperate to bring their titles to India," says a senior executive of a leading magazine requesting anonymity. As per the statistics provided by the I&B ministry, over 180 magazines have been given permission to start business in India in the past five years, while over 110 such publications have some percentage of foreign investments.

The non-availability of brands also became a major bone of contention when Financial Times of London was engaged in a court battle with Bennett, Coleman & Co, which also published a supplement with the same brand name.