IRS 2009 R2: TOI, DNA & Deccan Chronicle register growth

In the previous round, DNA and The Hindu had registered growth while TOI, HT had maintained a status quo

While the indicators of Indian economy signal recovery, those of the Indian newspaper industry tell a different story. Except for India's largest English daily, The Times of India (TOI), Diligent Media Network owned Daily News and Analysis (DNA), Deccan Chronicle, all other English newspapers in the Top 10 list are yet to recover to readership levels seen in early 2008.

After, losing around 3 lakh readers in R2, 2008 and maintaining a status quo in the previous round (R1, 2009), TOI is slowly trudging back to the levels it achieved in IRS R1, 2008. Though, it is still marginally short of reaching the 1.36 crore mark it had touched in R1, 2008. The English daily has added around 2 lakh readers in the current round of IRS taking its total readership to 1.35 crore. TOI's growth can be attributed to the Chennai edition which was launched last year. In Tamil Nadu where TOI's readership was not reported in the previous round, in the current round it has contributed around 3.66 lakh readers to the total readership.

At No.2 is Hindustan Times with a total readership of 61.4 lakh – which is less than half of TOI's total readership. The newspaper has also seen a dip of 2 lakh readers over the last round (R1, 2009). There is no one single region or state which accounts for bulk of the loss. However, what is rather intriguing is the fact that over the last two years, when other leading English dailies were struggling to maintain their readership levels, HT was going steady.

At the third spot is The Hindu, which has a total readership of 52.3 lakh. It, too, has seen a dip over the last round by 1.4 lakh readers. In the previous round it had added 97,000 readers.

The English daily is facing tough competition from TOI and Deccan Chronicle in its home turf Chennai. However, only 50 per cent (26.37 lakh) of its total readership is contributed by Tamil Nadu where as the other half comes from its multiple editions with biggest contribution of 17 lakh from Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

The other publication that seems to be slowly getting out of the slump in so far is the Deccan Chronicle. Its readership as grown by 5.1 per cent from 27.6 lakh to 29.1 lakh. The newspaper gets almost 60 per cent of its readership from Andhra Pradesh and another 39 per cent from Tamil Nadu. However, in the last one year between R2, 2008 and R2, 2009, the newspaper has lost around 1 lakh readers in Tamil Nadu.

The Telegraph, the English daily owned by the Kolkata-based ABP Group, with a total readership of 28 lakh, is at No. 5 in the list and has maintained a status quo. In comparison to the previous round, the eastern India's leading English daily has lost a marginal 18,000 readers. The newspaper has lost around 24,000 readers in Assam and another 18,000 readers in Jharkhand. However in Bihar where it was not reported in the previous rounds has contributed 28,000 readers in the current round.

The Economic Times (ET) and The New Indian Express are at the No. 6 and No.7, respectively – ET with a total readership of 17.5 lakh and The New Indian Express with a total readership of 15.3 lakh.

ET has lost around 1.7 lakh readers, out of which 78,000 readers has been in Greater Mumbai itself and another 19,000 readers in NCT (National Capital Territory of Delhi); however, The New Indian Express has had a marginal decline in readership of only 36,000 readers.

DNA is at the No. 8 spot with a TR of 15.3 lakh. It has increased its readership by 41,000, since IRS R1, 2009. However, the increase is largely on account of its new editions in Gujarat and Maharashtra now being a part of the survey. Mumbai, the city in which it was launched, saw a decline of 41,000 readers.

The last two slots in the Top 10 list are occupied by Mid-Day and Mumbai Mirror. While Mid-Day lost 73,000 readers since the last round, Mumbai Mirror's TR declined by 97,000 readers. As per the latest survey, the TR of Mid-Day stood at 15.1 lakh and that of Mumbai Mirror was 14.6 lakh.