IRS Q2 2010: Top 10 Dailies In Tamil Nadu

Rajat Arora | Delhi | August 25, 2010

The top 10 dailies in Tamil Nadu present a quite different picture in the second quarter of IRS 2010. Except of marginal growth in the readership of 'Daily Thanthi' and 'The Times of India', all 8 dailies in the top 10 list have lost their ground heavily.

No. 1 Tamil newspaper 'Daily Thanthi' has maintained its leadership with a slight growth of 0.9% by adding 68,000 readers in Q2 2010. Its current AIR has reached up to 72.63 lakh as compared to 71.95 lakh in the previous quarter.

'Dinakaran' holds the 2^nd spot despite losing 2.9% readers in the current survey. According to the AIR data released for second quarter of IRS 2010, it has recorded readership of 49.91 lakh as compared to 51.41 lakh in the last survey.

The 3^rd major player in Tamil Nadu, 'Dinamalar' has also registered a loss of 4.2% in the second quarter of IRS 2010. Its current AIR stands at 28.59 lakh as compared to 29.83 lakh in IRS Q1 2010.

Tamil Nadu is always the strong hold for 'The Hindu'. But in the second quarter of IRS 2010, the leading English daily of the country has lost 2% readers in its own state. Remaining at No.4, it has an AIR of 11.31 lakh as compared to 11.54 lakh in the last survey findings.

'Malai Malar' has registered a decline of 8.3% in the current survey. Its current AIR stands at 5.56 lakh in IRS Q2 2010 as compared to 6.06 lakh in the last quarter.

At No.6 'Dinamani' has also lost 4.5% readers in IRS Q2 2010. It has recorded an AIR of 5.12 lakh as compared to 5.36 lakh in the last survey findings.

'Deccan Chronicle' remains at 7^th spot in the state although it has lost 7.4% readers in the current survey. Its current AIR stands at 2.5 lakh as compared to 2.7 lakh in IRS Q1 2010.

'The Times of India' has slightly gone up by 0.5% in Tamil Nadu according second quarter results of IRS 2010. Its current AIR stands at 2.21 lakh.

At No.9 is 'Tamizh Murasu' with an AIR of 1.40 lakh which has lost 14.6% readers in the second quarter of IRS 2010.

'The New Indian Express' is the last in the top 10 list of dailies in Tamil Nadu with 1.08 lakh readers in the current survey.

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 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 matter of daily habit. Conventionally, media planners even calculate & compare cost-benefits of dailies based on the AIR figure. And hence it is perhaps most relevant to study readership trends as well in terms of AIR.

Rajat.Arora@BestMediaInfo.com

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