IRS 2007 Round 2: ‘TOI’ gains; ‘HT’ declines

‘India Today’, at rank three, has lost about 1,50,000 readers. Its readership as per the current round of IRS stands at 26.36 lakh

‘The Times of India’ continues to rule English publications in terms of readership. This English daily has marginally increased its average issue readership in this round of IRS by 0.69 per cent, taking its readership figure to 68.28 lakh as compared to 67.81 lakh in the previous round.

Its once closest competitor and now foe turned friend, ‘Hindustan Times’, comes in second among English publications with an average issue readership of 33.19 lakh readers, which is again a marginal decrease of 12,000 readers from the IRS 2007 Round 1 figures.

At rank three is ‘India Today’, which has also lost about 1,50,000 readers. Its readership as per the current round of IRS stands at 26.36 lakh.

Chennai’s market leader, ‘The Hindu’, has however managed to retain its readers and also add about 1,27,000 of them in comparison to the previous round of IRS. As per IRS 2007 Round 2, this English daily’s readership is 22.37 lakh.

‘Reader’s Digest’, which holds the fifth rank among the English publications, has lost a few readers. Its readership has gone down from 18.69 lakh in Round 1 to 17.49 lakh readers in the current round.

The number six and seven positions among the English publications are held by ‘General Knowledge Today’ and ‘Deccan Chronicle’. While ‘GK Today’ has gained 97,000 readers, taking its readership figure to 16.10 lakh, ‘Deccan Chronicle’ has lost 51,000 readers, taking its AIR to 12.60 lakh.

The eighth position is held by ‘Competition Success Review’ with a readership of 10.53 lakh, which is again a decline by 11.81 per cent in comparison to the previous round.

The Kolkata based English daily ‘The Telegraph’ is the ninth largest read English publication in the country with a readership of 10.15 lakh, which is an increase of 10.45 per cent over the previous round of IRS, when its readership figure was 9.19 lakh. In fact, it has moved up a rank from number 10 in the last round.

‘Filmfare’ is the only film magazine to have featured in the top 10 list of English publications with a readership of 9.91 lakh. In fact, it had a negative growth of 7.5 per cent in comparison to the previous round, which brought it down to rank 10 in this round from number nine in the last.