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The second round of the Indian Readership Survey 2008 shows a declining trend in readership of some top newspapers and magazines
According to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) Round 2, some newspapers in the country have gained readership, particularly Indian language newspapers, but magazines have registered a fall. The Hindi Dainik Jagran is the leading newspaper overall in terms of readership, growing by 2.13 million readers (2007) to 55.7 million readers in 2008. Dainik Bhaskar has added 3.2 million readers to reach a readership of 33.83 million. In third spot among the Hindi newspapers is Amar Ujala with a readership of 29.38 million, adding 1.3 million readers. Hindustan from the Hindustan Times group added 3.1 million readers to reach fourth position with a readership of 26.63 million, followed by Rajasthan Patrika at 14 million, a growth of 890,000 readers. In the English newspaper segment, The Times of India continues to have the highest readership at 13.34 million readers, though this is a loss in readership of 140,000 compared to the corresponding period in Round 1. The Hindustan Times comes in at second place with a readership of 6.35 million, up from 6.09 million, which is a gain of 260,000. Next come The Hindu with a readership of 5.28 million, The Telegraph with 2.9 million and Deccan Chronicle with a readership of 2.8 million. Gujarat Samachar is the most widely read Gujarati newspaper with a readership of 8.74 million. Malayala Manorama, with a 12.18 million readership, is the most widely read Malayalam publication, and Ananda Bazar Patrika with 15.39 million readers tops the Bengali publications segment. There has been a downturn in magazine readership in Round 2, 2008 over Round 2, 2007. The five top English language magazines are India Today, Reader’s Digest, General Knowledge Today, Competition Success Review, and Stardust. The top five Hindi magazines are Saras Salil, India Today Hindi, Meri Saheli, Cricket Samrat and Pratiyogita Darpan. India Today registered a drop in readership from 7.13 million to 6.85 million, while Reader’s Digest dropped 0.93 million readers to end up with a readership of 4 million. The leader in the Hindi segment, Saras Salil, saw a 2.1 million drop in readership to end up with a readership of 8.46 million. India Today Hindi also suffered a fall from 6.97 million to 5.81 million. Pratiyogita Darpan, however, registered an increase in readership from 4.12 million to 4.36 million. The bi-annual survey is conducted by the Media Research Users Council (MRUC), a not-for-profit agency. It counts the number of people who claim to have read the paper/magazine ‘recently’. The first round of IRS 2008 showed a declining trend in readership figures for most publications despite rising circulation. As a result, several publishers of the Indian Newspaper Society demanded a change in the way the survey was conducted. Earlier, in 2006, MRUC actually had to re-issue the results with some changes. Consequently, MRUC is working on a proposal that could change the way the survey captures data. The proposal, or white paper, is likely to suggest changes in methodology, increased sample size and frequency, and special provisions to better capture data. Source: livemint.com, November 7, 2008
indiantelevision.com, November 4, 2008
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