IRS Q4 2010: Top 10 Dailies In Gujarat

The top 3 dailies in the state show equal decline; The Times of India continues with consistent growth.

Rajat Arora | Delhi | March 15, 2011

Indian Readership Survey findings for past 4 rounds have not been good for No.1 Gujarati daily Gujarat Samachar while 2^nd largest read newspaper Divya Bhaskar and Sandesh on 3^rd spot have also shown decline in this quarter. Altogether, top 10 dailies in Gujarat have experienced mixed results in IRS Q4 2010.

Gujarat's No. 1 daily 'Gujarat Samachar' has maintained its top spot but lost 1.07 lakh readers in the fourth quarter of IRS 2010. With a decline of 2.4%, its current AIR stands at 43.65 lakh as compared to 44.72 lakh in IRS Q3 2010. The daily had lost 35,000 readers in Q3 and 56,000 readers in Q2. In total, the newspaper has lost 1.97 lakh readers during this year.

After maintaining a high growth throughout the year, Dainik Bhaskar Group's Gujarati Daily 'Divya Bhaskar' has seen a decline in the fourth quarter of IRS 2010. By losing 72,000 readers in IRS Q4 2010, Divya Bhaskar has recorded an AIR of 35.07 lakh as compared to 35.79 lakh in  the previous quarter. It had shown 6.3% growth by adding 2.13 lakh readers in Q3 and added 1.37 lakh readers in IRS Q2 2010. The newspaper has grown by 8.6% over the year and added 2.78 lakh since IRS Q1 2010.

The 3^rd major player in Gujarat 'Sandesh' too has seen a decline of 2.2% over last quarter readership. By losing 74,000 readers in the fourth quarter of IRS 2010, its AIR now stands at 33.03 lakh as compared to 33.77 lakh in IRS Q3 2010. Sandesh had added 2.5 lakh readers in Q3 and 5,000 readers in Q2. The newspaper has grown by 5.8% over the year and added 1.81 lakh readers in comparison to IRS Q1 2010.

India's No.1 English daily Gujarat's No.4 daily 'The Times of India' continues growing steadily. It has registered 7.6% growth in the 4^th quarter results of IRS 2010. The English daily has recorded an AIR of 2.84 lakh in the state as compared to 2.64 lakh in the last survey findings. TOI had added 34,000 readers in Q3 and 13,000 readers in IRS Q2 2010 also. In total the English daily has grown by 29.7% over the year.

At No.5 is 'Suarashtra Samachar' which has shown decline in the second consecutive quarter. The daily has lost 32,000 readers in IRS Q4 2010 and its AIR now stands at 2.08 lakh as compared to 2.40 lakh in the previous survey. It had lost 94,000 readers in Q3 but added 71,000 readers in Q1. The overall readership of the daily has come down by 20.9% over the year.

The sixth largest read daily in the state 'Gujarat Mitra & Darpan' has seen marginal decline by losing 13,000 readers in IRS Q4 2010. Its AIR now stands at 1.78 lakh as compared to 1.91 lakh in the previous quarter survey. The newspaper had added 5,000 readers in Q3 and 3,000 readers in Q2. Thus, 'Gujarat Mitra & Darpan' has registered 2.7% decline over the findings in IRS Q1 2010.

At No.7 is Gujarati daily 'Kutch Mitra' has recovered its losses during past 2 quarters but the daily is still far from what it was in the start of the year. By adding 17.9% readers, its AIR now stands at 92,000 as compared to 78,000. The daily had lost 23,000 readers in Q3 and 14,000 readers in Q2. In comparison to Q1, the newspaper has seen a decline by 20% in the fourth quarter of IRS 2010.

'Desh Pardeshni Aajkal' is at 8^th spot with current AIR of 69,000 as compared to 51,000 in IRS Q3 2010.

At 9^th and 10^th spots are the different editions of “Rajasthan Patrika” by recording an AIR of 57,000 each for Gujarat and Non-Gujarat editions. Both the editions have made an entry to the top 10 list in this quarter in the state.

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About methodology

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 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.

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