Do you want to start a publication, which can be a newspaper or a magazine, but don’t know how to register the newspaper title?
You need not worry. You can register the newspaper title with the Registrar of the Newspapers of India, popularly known by its acronym RNI.
RNI registers the newspaper and magazine titles under the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, and all publications have to be registered with RNI before they can start publishing.
RNI maintains a full list of the registered titles. It also manages a website where all information regarding registration including the forms is available. You can visit the RNI website and complete all the registration formalities online.
RNI, which was established in 1956, has laid down a two-step registration process.
#Step 1: Title Verification: You first need to get your newspaper title verified. It has to be a title that is not registered. Otherwise, the application will be rejected at the first step itself.
Visit the RNI website to search the availability of the newspaper title. Once you have checked that your title is available, you are ready for the next step.
You should now fill the title verification form available on the RNI website, and enter the following information: newspaper/magazine name; owner’s name, language of publication, periodicity or frequency of publication and the place of publication.
Next, the printed copy of the application form should be submitted to the forwarding office which depending upon your area can be the office of the district magistrate, district commissioner or sub-divisional magistrate.
The officer concerned will verify the information and forward it to the RNI office. The RNI will now notify the availability of the verified title for registration.
Once this happens the title is allotted to the applicant, and the applicant is given two years to register it. The title gets deblocked if the applicant fails to register it in time. To reclaim the title, the applicant has to go through the entire process again.
# Step 2. Title Registration: The registration process requires the applicant to fill up the declaration form and submit it to the District Magistrate’s office with the following documents: the first printed copy of the first issue, which would be Volume 1 and the Issue number would also be one, and a letter of agreement between the publisher and the printer regarding the publication.
The publisher can seek a change in periodicity at this stage. The publisher can also add or drop a publication language at the registration stage.
The publisher is now required to publish the first issue of the paper within 42 days if it is a daily or weekly. For a journal with higher periodicity, the publisher gets 90 days to publish the first issue.
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