The market in second-hand newspapers and magazines

From 10 things you might not know about India by Rajini Vaidyanathan.

I love the complexity and variety of the world. Though usually sanguine about the more brutal aspects of the marketplace, I love the habit and process of reading the newspaper and regret the decline and quite real prospect of the demise of the daily newspaper in the US. That said, there is always hope. Our local paper has revamped itself to focus much more on local news and has suddenly become much more aggressive in pursuing local governmental corruption and like stories - the old role of papers. Regardless of what is happening here, I love seeing that newspapers are going strong somewhere in the world.

While Western countries are mourning the demise of the newspaper, India's print industry is in fact booming. A growing literacy rate, relatively low internet use, and the large number of languages in the country, mean more people want to pick up their daily rag. It's also very cheap to buy a newspaper, which is widening newspaper readership among all social classes. Another reason why smaller, community newspapers are also on the rise, is because with a growing economy, more people are taking out classified ads, which helps to fund publications. What's also remarkable is the market in second-hand newspapers and magazines. You can sell your magazines to a man at a roadside stall, who will buy them off you and sell them again - there are people who are more than happy to read a year old copy of the Economist, if it's more affordable than the current issue.