The Hindu Advertising

Who reads The Hindu online?

The Hindu has been published from Chennai since 1878 and is one of India's best-known English newspapers. Its digital readers are mostly educated and urban. They include UPSC and state civil service aspirants, university students, teachers, doctors, lawyers, bureaucrats and senior managers. The English audience is national, with the deepest base in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Hindu Tamil Thisai, the group's Tamil daily, adds Tamil-language readers. Its digital site serves readers across Tamil Nadu who prefer news in Tamil.

In print, IRS 2019 Q1 reported a total readership of about 62 lakh for The Hindu. In 2025, WAN-IFRA named The Hindu the Champion of its Digital Media Awards South Asia, with awards for its digital subscription work. We do not quote a digital audience figure here because we could not verify a recent independent one. We share the publisher's numbers when we plan.

For most brands, The Hindu advertising is a quality buy rather than a reach buy. If your customer is a final-year engineering student in Coimbatore, a CFO in Bengaluru, or a parent in Chennai choosing a university abroad, this is where they read the news.

Categories that do well include higher education and test preparation, banking and mutual funds, insurance, B2B technology, premium real estate, and government and PSU communication. A Chennai-based IT services firm hiring freshers could run English display and native units, while a Tamil Nadu jewellery chain could run Tamil banners on Hindu Tamil Thisai during the same month.

What ad formats can you buy?

Takeovers and sponsorships are sold directly by the publisher. We request them for you.

When should you advertise on The Hindu?

Union Budget week lifts business and economy reading. Civil services exam dates and results bring heavy student traffic. Admission season, roughly April to July, is the key window for colleges and test-prep brands. Pongal in January and Deepavali in the autumn are the main retail moments for Tamil readers. Election results, national and state, bring peaks on both sites. Quieter summer weeks outside the admission rush can be good value for always-on finance and B2B campaigns.

How much do The Hindu ads cost?

Indicative The Hindu ad rates through DV360 are ₹150–400 CPM for private and PG deals. Open auction display is ₹40–120 CPM, rich media ₹90–220 and in-stream video ₹120–280. The minimum spend is about ₹5 lakh.

City targeting, the business and education sections, and results weeks sit at the higher end. Broad display sits lower. All rates are confirmed per campaign and GST is extra. Ask for a free media plan with a suggested split for your budget.

How do you measure The Hindu campaigns?

You get DV360 reports on impressions, reach, frequency, viewability, clicks and video completion, split by English and Tamil inventory and by city. For lead goals, such as course enquiries, place a Floodlight tag on the landing page. Brand lift can be set up for larger awareness campaigns.

How does The Hindu compare with other publishers?

The Hindu is the English-language pick for the south. Regional language publishers give more scale per rupee in their own states. Manorama Online leads for Malayalam and Eenadu for Telugu. Many south India plans pair The Hindu for English decision makers with one or two language publishers for mass reach.

Tips for better results

Keep English copy clear and factual, since this audience distrusts hype. Use native units for content such as reports, rankings or explainers. Write fresh Tamil copy for Hindu Tamil Thisai rather than translating the English ad. Time education campaigns to results and admission dates. And test every creative on both phone and desktop, since this audience reads on both.