IRS 2010, Q2: Kannada and Tamil dailies add readers; Telugu and Malayalam decline marginally

It's interesting that despite the two Telugu dailies gaining readers, the total readership of Telugu dailies have declined marginally

Amongst the four South Indian languages, Telugu dailies have lost a marginal number of 1 lakh readers in this quarter. From 2.26 crore in Q2, 2010, the total readership for any Telugu daily is now down to 2.25 crore. This is despite the fact that the two leading Telugu dailies have gained readers. Eenadu, the No. 1 Telugu daily, has grown by 3.12 lakh readers, while its closest competitor, the newly launched Sakshi, has added 2.4 lakh readers. Eenadu's total readership is now at 1.5 crore, while Sakshi is at 1.32 crore.

IRS 2010, Q2: Kannada and Tamil dailies add readers; Telugu and Malayalam decline marginally

However, other dailies in this language, including Andhra Jyothi and Vartha, have lost readers. With a total readership of 32.48 lakh, Vartha has been continuously losing readers in the last few rounds. In the last nine months, the daily has lost about 7.70 lakh readers.

Andhra Jyothi, with a total readership of 59.98 lakh, has also lost 97,000 readers in the latest round. Meanwhile, Telugu weeklies have shown growth by adding 2.14 lakh readers.

AS Raghunath, independent media consultant, says, "Youngsters are clearly fatigued on the political coverage being fed to them by these old dailies, which are low on youth centric content. These old dailies have not been following the aspirations of the youth, which the new dailies are following now."

RS Suriyanarayana, business director, LMG, says, "In Karnataka, there has not been a price war till now but Andhra Pradesh saw many activities some time back when Sakshi entered the market. It undertook a huge marketing push. Maybe there were inflated data in the few earlier rounds but now, things are settling down; hence the drop in the readership figures."

Malayalam dailies have recorded a marginal decline of 8,000 readers in the latest quarter. The total readership of Malayalam dailies stands at 2.18 crore. Here, except for Malayala Manorama (also the top Malayalam daily), the other top four newspapers have witnessed declines in readership. Mathrubhumi has been the biggest loser amongst the four South Indian language publications since the last three rounds - a loss of 8.04 lakh readers.

Deshabhimani and Kerala Kaumudi are the other two major players to have recorded a sharp decline in the readership in the latest quarter - both have lost 3 lakh plus readers.

Malayalam publications, including daily, weekly, fortnightly and monthly publications, have all recorded losses in readership. Raghunath adds that one quarter is too short a period to conclude if the Malayalam dailies are not faring well, and "things will get clear after four quarters, when this year's figures can be averaged with the last year's figures".

Meanwhile, Kannada dailies have emerged as the biggest gainers in this market, having close to 6 lakh readers. In fact, between R2, 2009 and now, the Malayalam dailies have added more than 8 lakh total readers. In this market, the No. 1 daily, Vijay Karnataka, with a total readership of 78.01 lakh readers, has lost 4.65 lakh readers, while the No. 2 player, Prajavani, has added 9.68 lakh readers, which has contributed to this growth. The newspaper, with a total readership of 64.15 lakh, has been narrowing its gap with Vijay Karnataka for the last few rounds.

Suriyanarayanan adds that in Karnataka, Deccan Herald and Pravajani had undergone some changes a year ago. "Both have become more youth oriented and this might be a reason behind the swell in their numbers now," he asserts.

The other gainer is Kannada Prabha, which has added 1.34 lakh readers, while Samyukta Karnataka and Udayavani have lost 1.34 lakh and 98,000 readers, respectively. Meanwhile, Kannada monthly publications have also lost 2.5 lakh readers.

Tamil dailies enjoy the maximum readership amongst the four South Indian languages and this time, they have added close to 4.5 lakh readers, taking the total readership of Tamil dailies to 2.97 crore. In fact, since R2, 2009, the Tamil dailies have added close to 7.40 lakh readers.

In fact, just like the Telugu dailies, the top two Tamil dailies have also recorded a growth in total readership. Daily Thanthi, with a total readership of 2.06 crore, has added 4.04 lakh readers, while Dinakaran has added about 6.13 lakh taking its total readership to 1.7 crore.

Amongst Tamil dailies, Malai Malar has lost the most readers - a loss of 1.36 lakh readers in this round. On one hand, where Tamil dailies are performing the best, the weekly, fortnightly and monthly publications in Tamil have registered heavy losses - a loss of 9.04 lakh; 29,000; and 49,000, respectively.

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