The crowded Indian print media business

Knowledge @ Wharton has a good article on the Indian print media industry. Here is CMIE data on the firms and the industry for the `Media - print' industry - this has things like the `market shares' statement. I found it fascinating that there are now six listed companies out there in this field, with industry market capitalisation of roughly Rs.100 billion, of which three firms are above $0.5 billion of market capitalisation (Deccan Chronicle, HT, Jagran Prakashan). This suggests there are now clear `listed peers' in place, which should help focus entry strategies for newcomers and the going-public decision for incumbents. While the Knowledge @ Wharton article depicts a spate of entry taking place, the (trailing 4-q) industry P/E is 18.2, suggesting that the market's outlook for earnings growth is not particularly high by Indian standards. Then why is so much entry taking place? Update: On 20 May, the New York Times carried a story Newspapers on upswing in developing markets by Heather Timmons.