Many Indians, mostly in small towns, like to read newspapers and flip through magazines while standing at news marts. It's an Indian jugaad for getting to read the newspaper free of cost. Since Indians are too happy to devour a free copy of newspaper or magazine, almost all tea stalls in small towns subscribe to at least one newspaper and/or any magazine catering to the popular taste. However, if you live in a metro, one might not be able to engage in this jugaad for getting to read newspapers for free.

More than 100 years ago, some enterprising newspaper vending company in Bombay (now Mumbai) made an effort to create a news circulation business out of Indians' thrifty nature. It offered newspapers on rent for a few hours. So the same newspaper would be delivered at one home early in the morning, then collected and delivered to another homes. The cost of getting a newspaper reduced as the sun completed its day's journey in the sky. One who waited for the newspaper till 4 o'clock had the option to return it the next morning. If someone wanted to keep the newspaper, he could get the newspaper a day after publication.



The October 1909 issue of Popular Mechanics has an article titled "Curious newspaper practices in India" which documents this ingenious way of circulating newspapers.

CURIOUS NEWSPAPER PRACTICES IN INDIA
By a complicated system of newspaper circulation, in which the same paper is circulated in as many as three different households, a Bombay firm which contracts with the newspapers for fresh supplies every day shows a thriftiness that would put an American newsboy to shame. The price of the leading morning newspapers ill Bombay. delivered by mail, is 66 cents a month, but if a subscriber will take it from a carrier who delivers it at 7 o'clock and will read and return it when 11, calls again at 11 o'clock. the price is only 50 cents a month. If the subscriber is willing to wait for his morning paper until 4 o'clock in the afternoon, he may have it at that hour and return it to the carrier the next morning for 33 cents a month. Or, if he likes to keep his old papers, he may wait until the next morning after publication, have his paper for 33 cents a month, and be under no obligation to return it at all. Thus the same paper may be circulated through three different households, and the total revenue therefrom will amount to $1.05 per month.

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