RNI registration provides a way for serious individuals to start a newspaper in India. Governed as per the Press and Registered Books act and overseen by the Registrar of Newspaper in India, it’s a permit that allows one to either publish a newspaper or a publication in any region of India.

If you’re someone who wants to start their own newspaper, this blog is dedicated to you. Here are 5 steps to get RNI registration in India. Follow along and when you hit a dead-end, look us up.

Choose a name for your newspaper and then protect it
The primary matter of concern when it comes to newspaper registration is not the content of the newspaper, it’s the title. When you pick your newspaper after a morning tea, you see the title first. That title not only acts as a brand of the newspaper. It also tells you the nature of the material you’re about to read.

This is why you should take special care when choosing a name for a newspaper. While uniqueness is an important factor, it’s not enough. When you’re going through the process of RNI online registration, you’ll find out that you also have to give a meaning of the name you’ve chosen. Thus, choose a meaningful name for your publication that’s also unique. Following are some tips of which names you stay away from:

1. Names that are gibberish
2. Names that are a combination of newspaper names.
3. Names that have national symbols in them.
4. Names that contain the names of government departments in it.
5. Names that can hurt the sentiment of an individual.

Once you find out a truly unique name, start putting the documents required for RNI registration together. One of those will be a document that will protect your ownership of that newspaper name a trademark registration certificate.

Simply put, once you’ve chosen a name for your newspaper, protect it by getting it registered as a trademark.

File the online application
After putting together the documents for registration, get ready with the fees and apply. Once you’ve submitted the online application, download it. Attach the hard copies of the documents to it and deliver them to the SDM’s office.

Get the Title verification letter
The application that you’ve filed and the RNI registration fees you’ve paid are to get approval for the title. The title is assessed at two levels one at the SDM’s level, and the other at the level of Registrar of Newspaper in India. Both of these authorities pool their information together to surmise the uniqueness and meaningfulness of the title of your newspaper. If they don’t see any issues with the name that can make the newspaper undesirable or not in the best interest of India, you’ll get the RNI title verification letter.

Get authentication for the declaration
After you’ve obtained the RNI title verification letter, you have to declare that on an affidavit. Afterward, send that affidavit to the SDM. It’s up to him to either authenticate that declaration or reject it. Traditionally, rejection for authentication should not happen. However, if it does, be sure that you have an RNI registration agent who can smoothen the deal.

Publish your first copy
After the SDM has finally authenticated your declaration, it’s time to come out with the first copy of your newspaper or publication. Depending upon how frequently you want to publish your newspaper, you get a specific time to publish your first copy:

• If you’re planning to publish on a weekly or daily basis, you get 42 days to come out with the first copy.
• If you’re planning to publish on a fortnightly or monthly basis, you get 90 days to come out with your first copy.

Conclusion
The above steps are only meant for news “papers”, not news portals. In simple terms, there is RNI registration for an online news portal. So, if you want to get an RNI registration certificate for a newspaper, call us.