IRS 2010, Q4: Hindustan grabs the No. 2 position from Dainik Bhaskar

The newspaper has added more than a crore total readers in the last three years.

Hindustan has finally made it to the No. 2 position, having added more than 20 lakh readers this time, as per IRS 2010, Q4. The Hindi daily now claims a total readership of 3.52 crore, which is 12 lakh more than Dainik Bhaskar. Hindustan had been slowly inching closer to Dainik Bhaskar for the last few quarters and in the last quarter, the gap between the two had narrowed down to only 6.6 lakh readers. The newspaper has added more than a crore readers in the last three years.

Despite losing its No. 2 position, Dainik Bhaskar has retained its growth spree in the current quarter. The Hindi daily has added 1.81 lakh readers in Q4, 2010 to take its total readership to 3.4 crore. It had added 80,000 total readers in the last quarter, as well. In the previous two quarters (Q1 and Q2, 2010), it had added about 7 lakh readers, almost making up for the loss of 8.7 lakh readers in the two rounds of IRS 2009.

Dainik Jagran, meanwhile, continues to hold the No. 1 rank and also maintains its wide gap with the nearest competitor. It's still 1.9 crore readers ahead of Hindustan, the No. 2 daily. However, in the current quarter, the country's largest daily has lost about 2 lakh readers, with its total readership declining marginally to 5.45 crore from 5.47 crore. The newspaper had gained 5.39 lakh readers in Q3, 2010, while it had lost about 70,000 readers in Q2, 2010.

At No. 4, Amar Ujala has lost a marginal 1.25 lakh readers and its total readership is down from 2.97 crore to 2.96 crore. The newspaper has launched an NCR edition last month, the results of which are expected to reflect in the subsequent quarters of IRS. In the last one year, the newspaper has gained 8.93 lakh readers.

The Marathi daily, Lokmat, continues to be at the No. 5 position, which it had gained from Daily Thanthi in R1, 2009. The leading Marathi daily has added one lakh readers in the current quarter and close to 5 lakh readers since Q1, 2010. Its total readership in Q4, 2010 is 2.38 crore.

At No. 6, the country's largest Tamil daily, Daily Thanthi, has lost more than 3.5 lakh readers. In the previous quarter, too, the daily had lost 1.5 lakh readers. The newspaper now claims a total readership of 2.01 crore.

Daily Thanthi's arch rival and the No. 2 Tamil daily, Dinakaran, has yet again lost readers, though it has managed to retain the No. 7 spot amongst dailies in the country. It has lost 72,000 readers in the current quarter, while it had lost 3.71 lakh readers in Q3, 2010. Its total readership in Q4, 2010 stands at 1.65 crore and it has lost close to 2 lakh readers since Q1, 2010.

Eenadu, the No. 1 Telugu daily, which had moved up by one position to No. 8 in the last quarter, has lost 2.9 lakh total readers in Q4, 2010. The newspaper claims a total readership of 1.48 crore, which is 43,000 more than its total readership in Q1, 2011.

Rajasthan Patrika has also lost about 93,000 readers in Q4, 2010, taking its total readership to 1.46 crore. The newspaper, which moved up to No. 9 position in the current quarter, has gained about 4.35 lakh readers since Q1, 2010.

The No. 1 Bengali daily, Anandabazar Patrika, which has lost two positions in the last two quarters, is at No. 10. The daily has lost 8.21 lakh readers in the last one year. It has recorded a loss of 4.7 lakh readers in the current quarter, very similar to last quarter's situation, when it had lost an equal number of readers.

The Times of India, India's No. 1 English daily, continues to be at No. 11 with a total readership of 1.38 crore. It had gained 1.14 lakh readers in Q3, 2010, while in the current quarter, it has added 2.04 lakh readers.

(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.)