Union Government announces new Print Media Advertisement policy

The Union Information and Broadcasting ministry has framed a New Print Media Advertisement Policy for Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP).
The objective of the policy is to promote transparency and accountability in issuing of advertisements in print media.
Key highlights of policy

• It focuses on streamlining release of Government advertisements and to also promote equity and fairness among various categories of newspapers and periodicals.
• For the first time it has introduced a New Marking System for newspapers to incentivize Newspapers. The system is based on 6 objective criteria with different marks each of them.
• The newspapers will be able get benefit from new system who have better professional standing and get their circulation verified Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) or Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI).
• DAVP will release advertisements to newspapers based on marks obtained by each newspaper.
• This will also ensure transparency and accountability in the release of advertisements by DAVP.
• For payment and adjustment of Bills, it mandates that DAVP will release payment of advertisement bills in the name of newspaper or company account directly through ECS or NEFT.
• The policy has classified newspaper and journals into three categories namely (i) small: publishing upto 25,000 copies per day, (ii) medium: between 25,001 and 75,000 copies and (iii) Big: 75,000 copies or more.

DAVP: It is the nodal agency of the Union Government for advertising on behalf of various Ministries and Departments which are funded by the government.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2016