IRS Q2, 2010: Gujarati dailies add new readers; top publications decline

Gujarati dailies have added new readers in the current round of IRS, though the top publications have lost readers. The total readership of any Gujarati daily has increased by 1.22 lakh readers, from 1.44 crore in Q1, 2010 to 1.46 crore in Q2, 2010.

The top three Gujarati dailies in the state have seen declines in readership. Gujarat Samachar, the No. 1 Gujarati daily in the state with a total readership of 73.6 lakh readers, has lost 2.9 lakh readers in the current round. Sandesh, the No. 2 daily in the state with a total readership of 59.95 lakh, has also lost more than 2 lakh readers. Amongst the top three dailies, Divya Bhaskar is the only one to have maintained a status quo with a negligible decline of 10,000 readers. Its total readership as per Q2, 2010 is 54.84 lakh.

In the English dailies category, The Times of India has added a meagre 6,000 readers to its total readership of 4 lakh. The penetration of English dailies in the state is less than 1.5 per cent.

The English business daily, The Economic Times (ET), has more readers than Ahmedabad Mirror and DNA. ET has increased its readership by 4,000 readers from 59,000 to 63,000, while DNA has added 2,000 readers and increased from 56,000 in Q1 to 58,000 in Q2.

Hindi dailies also have a very low penetration in the state. The lead Hindi daily in the state is Rajasthan Patrika with 80,000 readers, though even that has lost 8,000 readers in the current round.

Amongst magazines, Chitralekha continues to hold the top spot with a total readership of 3.94 lakh. In the current round, it has added 59,000 new readers.

Abhiyaan is the No. 2 magazine in the state with a total readership of 1.98 lakh - an addition of about 9,000 readers over Q1, 2010.

Grih Shobha (Gujarati) is at No. 3 with a total readership of 2.73 lakh. The magazine, though, has lost 53,000 readers in the last two quarters.