IRS Round 2 reports: TOI's readership declines marginally, HT gains

The Times Of India continues to be the English daily with the highest readership of 70.98 lakhs, as per the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) Round 2, 2003-04. However, the readership of The Times Of India has declined by 1.89 per cent from 72.35 lakhs in the round 1 of IRS 2003-04. What's more worrying that among the top seven English language dailies, TOI was the only one to have slipped.

In comparison, the readership of Hindustan Times - which continues to be the second-highest read English daily with a figure of 31.54 lakhs - has gone up by 6.88 per cent from 29.47 lakhs in the round 1 of IRS 2003-04.

In the Delhi market, where TOI and HT battle out, TOI rules over with readership of 25.29 lakhs. However, the difference between TOI and HT is marginal as HT Delhi has a readership of 24.54 lakhs.

Among the other English dailies in the country, The Hindu retains the third position with a readership of 27.43 lakhs, which has increased by 33,000 readers from the round 1 of IRS 2003-04. Deccan Chronicle also continues to be in the fourth position with a readership of 11.05 lakhs. Deccan Chronicle's readership has gone up from 10.53 lakhs readers in the last round.

The fifth and sixth position has been interchanged between The Economic Times and The Telegraph. While The Economic Times' readership has gone up to 10.44 lakhs increasing by 32,000 from the last round figures, The Telegraph, with a readership of 10.24 lakhs, has been pushed to the sixth position, despite the addition of a few more readers.

Mid Day, which was at the ninth position in the previous round, has moved up to the seventh position with a readership of 7.79 lakhs. While there has been a marginal increase in the Mid Day's readership, the readership of The Indian Express and New Indian Express has gone down to 7.50 lakhs each from 8.41 lakhs and 7.82 lakh readers, respectively.

Deccan Herald maintains its tenth position with a readership of 6.92 lakhs. Its readership has also drastically gone down by 7.73 per cent from 7.50 lakh readers in the last round.

Overall, the total readership of all English dailies in the country is 1.68 crores, compared to the Hindi dailies' tally of 5.74 crores.

© 2004 agencyfaqs!