IRS Q2 2012: Top 10 Hindi Magazines

The top two magazines - Pratiyogita Darpan and Samanya Gyan Darpan – register growth in readership while next 7 magazines degrow

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | October 4, 2012

The top two Hindi magazines have registered slight growth in the second quarter of Indian Readership Survey 2012 while the next seven magazines have witnessed negative growth in their readership. This quarter has not seen any change in the pecking order of the top 10 Hindi magazines.

Educational Hindi magazine Pratiyogita Darpan has reversed the declining trend over the last three quarters to post growth in its readership in IRS Q2 2012. At No. 1, the vernacular magazine has an AIR of 19.18 lakh against 18.93 lakh in the previous quarter and 20.01 lakh in IRS Q4 2011. The magazine lost 1.08 lakh readers in IRS Q1 2012, 24,000 readers in IRS Q4 2011, 1.29 lakh readers in IRS Q3 2011. It had added 1.27 lakh readers in IRS Q2 2011.

The second most read Hindi magazine, Samanya Gyan Darpan, is also an educational magazine which holds the No. 2 position backed by marginal growth in readership. The magazine has added 20,000 readers in IRS Q2 2012 after losing 34,000 readers in the previous quarter. Its current AIR stands at 16.64 lakh compared with 16.44 in last round of survey and 16.78 lakh in IRS Q4 2011.

Saras Salil, which slipped to No. 3 in the previous survey, has lost 53,000 readers again. The magazine has recorded an AIR of 15.48 lakh compared with 16.01 lakh in the previous quarter and 17.68 lakh in IRS Q4 2011. The magazine had lost 1.67 lakh readers in IRS Q1 2012, 1.73 lakh readers IRS Q4 2011 and 98,000 readers in IRS Q3 2011 but added 94,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011.

At No.  4, Meri Saheli has lost 67,000 readers in the second quarter of IRS 2012 recording an AIR of 11.92 lakh compared with 12.59 lakh in the previous quarter and 12.13 lakh in IRS Q4 2011. It had added 46,000 in IRS Q1 2012, 4,000 readers in IRS Q4 2011, 35,000 readers in IRS Q3 2011 and 74,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011.

After losing 54,000 readers in the last quarter, Cricket Samrat has lost another 41,000 readers to clock an AIR of 11.35 lakh in IRS Q2 2012 against 11.76 lakh in the previous quarter and 11.54 lakh in IRS Q4 2011. It had added 22,000 readers in IRS Q1 2012 while it had lost 5,000 readers in IRS Q4 2011 and 54,000 readers in IRS Q3 2011. Cricket Samrat had an AIR of 11.59 lakh in IRS Q3 2011, 12.13 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 9.84 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

At No. 6, India Today Hindi has posted negative growth with the magazine recording 10.01 lakh AIR in IRS Q2 2012 against 10.51 lakh in the previous quarter. The magazine had an AIR of 10.72 lakh in IRS Q4 2011, 11.16 lakh in IRS Q3 2011, 11.44 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 11.37 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

Women's magazine Grehlakshmi has remained at No. 7 with 9.13 lakh of AIR in IRS Q2 2012 against 9.58 lakh in the previous quarter. It had 9.52 lakh readers in IRS Q4 2011, 9.83 lakh readers in IRS Q3 2011 and 10.08 lakh readers in IRS Q2 2011.

Grih Shobha has also shown de-growth but the loss of readership is comparatively lower than its competitor Grehlakshmi. The magazine has recorded an AIR of 8.43 lakh in the current survey compared with 8.6 lakh in the previous quarter. It had an AIR of 9.51 lakh in IRS Q4 2011, 9.9 lakh in IRS Q3 2011 and 10.10 lakh in IRS Q2 2011.

Champak, the No. 9 magazine, has lost 49,000 readers in the current survey and recorded an AIR of 7.62 lakh compared with 8.11 lakh in IRS Q1 2012, 8.53 lakh in IRS Q4 2011, 8.59 lakh in IRS Q3 2011, 8.73 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 8.43 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

The quarterly health magazine Nirogdham has been able to hold its readers with 7.50 lakh readers in IRS Q2 2012 against 7.47 lakh readers in the previous quarter, 7.52 lakh readers in IRS Q4 2011, 7.73 lakh readers in IRS Q3 2011 and 7.63 lakh readers in IRS Q2 2011.

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Average Issue Readership (AIR) of a publication is defined as the number of readers of that publication who have claimed to have last read it within its periodicity, i.e., last read a daily yesterday, a weekly within the last week, a monthly within the last month, etc.

This measure is considered to be a more relevant measure of 'real' or 'regular' readership, especially for newspapers, most of which have been read / 'consumed' as a matter of daily habit. Conventionally, media planners even calculate and compare cost-benefits of dailies based on the AIR figure. Hence, it is perhaps the most relevant to study readership trends as well in terms of AIR.

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