IRS 2010 Q3: Top Hindi dailies record growth in TR; Tamil dailies decline

Hindustan is the top gainer, having added more than 22 lakh readers. Jagran has recorded a growth in readership after a few lull rounds. Amongst the Top 10 dailies, Daily Thanthi, Dinakaran and ABP have recorded declines in total readership.

Dainik Jagran, the country's most read daily, has recorded a growth in total readership after a negative growth for the last couple of rounds. In the current round of IRS (2010 Q3), Jagran has recorded a growth of 5.39 lakh readers. In the previous quarter (IRS 2010 Q2), the Hindi daily had lost about 70,000 readers. In 2009 R2, the Hindi daily had gained 2 lakh readers. Its current total readership is 5.47 crore - still lower than 5.66 crore total readers, which it had achieved in R1, 2008.

Hindustan, which retained the No. 3 slot in 2010 Q3, has added a record 22 lakh readers in the current round, after the addition of 15 lakh readers in the previous round. In fact, the newspaper, which has been on a growth spree in the last few rounds, has been slowly inching closer to the No. 2 player, Dainik Bhaskar. The gap between Bhaskar and Hindustan has narrowed down to only 6.6 lakh readers. The newspaper has added 88 lakh readers since 2008 R1 and its current total readership is 3.31 crore.

The Marathi daily, Lokmat, continues to be at the No. 5 position, which it had gained from Daily Thanthi in 2009 R1. The newspaper, which added close to 15 lakh readers in the previous four rounds, has added a marginal 20,000 readers in the current one. Its total readership in 2010 Q3 is 2.37 crore.

At No. 6, Daily Thanthi, which had gained 4.5 lakh readers in the previous two quarters, has lost 1.51 lakh readers in the current one. Since 2007 R2and 2009 R2, the Tamil daily had lost about 6 lakh readers. Its total readership in 2010 Q3 stands at 2.05 crore.

The No. 2 Tamil daily, Dinakaran, which had added 2.5 lakh readers in the last quarter, has lost 3.71 lakh total readers in the current quarter. The newspaper had added 4 lakh readers in 2010 Q1. However, in the two rounds of IRS 2009, the newspaper had lost about 4.5 lakh readers. In 2008 R1, the newspaper had 1.7 crore readers, which is now marginally down to 1.66 crore in IRS 2010 Q3.

In 2009 R2, it claimed the No. 9 rank, pushing Rajasthan Patrika to No. 10. It has a total of 1.50 crore readers in 2010 Q3. While the newspaper had gained about 5.02 lakh readers between R1, 2007 and R1, 2008; it lost about 7 lakh readers in the next two rounds (2009 R1 and 2008 R2). However, in 2009 R2, the Telugu daily added about 6.7 lakh readers.

Anandabazar Patrika, the No. 1 Bengali daily which has been growing for the last few rounds, has not only lost readers - it has also been pushed down by a rank - though the gap between it and the No. 8 rank holder is roughly about 90,000 readers. The newspaper has lost 4.78 lakh readers in the current quarter. This is after it had added about 1.28 lakh readers in Q2, 2010. In Q1, 2010, the newspaper had maintained a status quo, while in 2009 R2, it had lost about 1.7 lakh readers. In 2009 R1, though, it had added about 1.21 lakh readers. In R2, 2008, it had lost 1.7 lakh readers. Currently, its total readership is 1.5 crore.

Rajasthan Patrika, which had gained 6.8 lakh readers in the previous two quarters, has maintained its growth curve, though this time it's not so steep. It has added a marginal 49,000 readers, taking its total readership to 1.47 crore.

Sakshi, at No. 12, which had added 2.4 lakh readers in the previous quarter, has added another 1.55 lakh readers in the current quarter. From 1.25 crore total readers in 2009 R2, it has gone up to 1.34 crore in IRS 2010 Q3.

Malayala Manorama, which had lost 3 lakh readers in Q1, 2010 and then added about 1.18 lakh readers in Q2, 2010, has maintained a status quo, having added a marginal 10,000 readers. Its total readership is 1.28 crore.

Daily Sakal, the Marathi newspaper, is at No. 14 with a total readership of 1.13 crore - a loss of 34,000 readers. It is followed by Punjab Kesari at No. 15, with a total readership of 1.05 crore.

(Total Readership includes any reader who has read any of the last six issues; whereas average issue readership includes only readers who have read the last issue.)