Print advertising slips just 2 per cent in first seven months of 2026

MUMBAI: Print may have lost a little space, but it has hardly lost its place. Ad space in Indian print media declined by a marginal 2 per cent in January-July 2026 compared with the same period last year, pointing to a largely stable market, according to TAM AdEx’s Print Advertising report for January-July 2026 versus January-July 2025.

Education remained the biggest spender, accounting for 20 per cent of total print ad space, followed by Services at 15 per cent. Auto and Banking and Financial Services were the other major sectors.

The top five sectors together accounted for more than 66 per cent of print ad space. Corporate/Brand Image was the only new entrant to the top 10 sectors, while the top four retained their positions from January-July 2025.

At the category level, Cars continued to occupy the top spot, with the 10 biggest categories together making up 48 per cent of print ad space. Four categories improved their rankings during the period, while Retail Outlets-Clothing/Textiles/Fashion entered the top 10.

Education accounted for three of the top 10 categories, while Auto contributed two. In absolute terms, Multiple Courses recorded the highest increase in ad space over January-July 2025, followed by Retail Outlets-Jewellers and Ecom-Other Services.

On the advertiser front, Maruti Suzuki India retained the top position for the second consecutive year. Seven of the 10 leading advertisers from January-July 2025 remained in this year’s top 10, with SBS Biotech, GCMMF and Renault India joining the list.

Allen Career Inst emerged as the leading brand in print during January-July 2026, followed by LIC of India. More than 108,000 brands advertised in print during the period, with three of the top 10 brands each coming from Auto and Education.

Language preferences remained remarkably steady. Hindi and English together accounted for more than 60 per cent of print ad volume in both January-July 2025 and January-July 2026, with the top three publication languages unchanged year on year.

Promotional messaging also continued to occupy a sizeable chunk of the page. Sales promotions accounted for 28 per cent of print ad space, with Multiple Promotion making up 45 per cent of sales-promotion space. Discount Promotion followed, and together the two formats accounted for 85 per cent of the segment.

So while print’s ad space has edged down, the numbers suggest advertisers are still giving the medium plenty of column inches.