Print Media was started in India in 1780. The total circulation of Indian Press is around 110 Millions and the total number of newspapers and periodicals are around 42,000. There are 4,750 dailies, 325 tri/bi-weeklies, 14,750 weeklies, 11,500 monthlies, 5650 fortnightly, 3000 quarterlies, 365 annuals and 1,400 publications with periodicity like bi-monthlies, half yearly etc. Indian newspapers are published in more than 100 languages and dialects. Apart from English and 18 principal languages enumerated in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian constitution, newspapers are published in 81 other languages, mostly Indian languages or dialects and couple of foreign languages. The highest number of newspapers are published in Hindi. Daily newspapers are brought out in 17 principal languages except Kashmiri and Konkani.

More than forty of the publications are 100 years or more old. The Gujarati daily Bombay Samachar established in 1822(about 160,000 copies) published from Bombay is the oldest existing newspaper not only in India but in Asia. The first news weekly published in India in 1780, Bengal Gazette was in English. Dig Darshan in Bengali published in 1818 was the first Indian language newspaper also from Calcutta (Kolkatha).