IRS Q4 2012 – Hindi dailies maintain pecking order

Six newspapers register decline in AIR; Dainik Jagran maintains top position despite losing readership  

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | March 28, 2013

The fourth quarter of IRS 2012 has not been good for Hindi dailies. Six out of top 10 newspapers have registered decline in their Average Issue Readership (AIR). However, there is no change in the pecking order.

India's No. 1 Hindi daily, Dainik Jagran, has registered degrowth in the fourth quarter of IRS 2012. It has lost 1,04,000 readers recording an AIR of 1,63,70,000 in the current survey compared with 1,64,74,000 in IRS Q3 2012, 1,64,29,000 in IRS Q2 2012 and 1,64,12,000 in IRS Q1 2012. Dainik Jagran had 1,64,10,000 readers in IRS Q4 2011.

At No. 2, Dainik Bhaskar has also lost 75,000 readers in IRS Q4 2012. Its current AIR stands at 1,44,16,000 against 1,44,91,000 in IRS Q3 2012, 1,44,48,000 in IRS Q2 2012, 1,45,53,000 in IRS Q1 2012 and 1,46,02,000 in IRS Q4 2011.

The readership of Hindustan remained stable in this quarter with the daily adding 4,000 readers. It has recorded an AIR of 1,22,46,000 compared with 1,22,42,000 in the previous quarter, 1,22,05,000 in IRS Q2 2012, 1,21,57,000 in IRS Q1 2012 and 1,20,45,000 in IRS Q4 2011.

The fourth largest Hindi daily, Amar Ujala, has lost 102,000 readers in the fourth quarter of IRS 2012. It has recorded an AIR of 84.34 lakh in the current survey against 85.36 lakh in IRS Q3 2012, 86.08 lakh in IRS Q2 2012, 86.93 lakh in IRS Q1 2012 and 88.42 lakh in IRS Q4 2011.

At No. 5, Rajasthan Patrika has registered slight growth for the second quarter in a row and recorded an AIR of 68.37 in IRS Q4 2012 against 68.18 lakh in the previous quarter, 67.56 lakh in IRS Q2 2012, 68.07 lakh in IRS Q1 2012 and 68.47 lakh in IRS Q4 2011.

Punjab Kesri has lost 41,000 readers in the current survey, recording an AIR of 33.23 lakh in IRS Q4 2012 against 33.64 lakh in the previous quarter, 33.47 lakh in IRS Q2 2012, 33.86 lakh in IRS Q1 2012 and 33.30 lakh in IRS Q4 2011.

At No. 7, Prabhat Khabar continues to grow on quarter on quarter basis. The daily has added 98,000 readers in the current survey and recorded an AIR of 28.59 lakh against 27.61 lakh in the previous quarter, 26.21 lakh in IRS Q2 2012, 24.37 lakh in IRS Q1 2012 and 21.87 lakh in IRS Q4 2012.

Navbharat Times continues to be at No. 8 despite a slight degrowth in the current survey. It has registered an AIR of 26.33 lakh in IRS Q4 2012 compared with 26.39 lakh in the previous quarter, 25.84 lakh in IRS Q2 2012, 25.88 lakh in IRS Q1 2012 and 25.73 lakh in IRS Q4 2012.

Patrika has added 17,000 readers to record an AIR of 20.68 lakh against 20.51 lakh in the previous quarter, 20.72 lakh in IRS Q2 2012, 19.46 lakh in IRS Q1 2012 and 17.87 lakh in IRS Q4 2011.

At No. 10, Nai Dunia has lost 1.95 lakh readers in the fourth quarter of IRS 2012. It has recorded an AIR of 13.58 lakh against 15.53 lakh in the previous quarter, 15.69 lakh in IRS Q2 2012, 16.88 lakh in IRS Q1 2012 and 16.49 lakh in IRS Q4 2011.

(AIR numbers; All figures in '000)

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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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