IRS Q4 2010: Top 10 Language Dailies

Nightmare for Language dailies as top 7 out of top 10 publications see decline in their AIR.

Rajat Arora | Delhi | March 14, 2011

The fourth quarter of IRS 2010 has been proved as the nightmare for the language dailies of the country where top 7 publications have seen decline in their average issue readership (AIR). However, there is no change in order among top 10 language dailies.

India's largest read language daily Malayalam newspaper 'Malayala Manorama' has maintained its leadership but registered a slight decline. The newspaper has recorded an AIR of 99.30 lakh in IRS Q4 2010 as compared to 99.40 lakh in the previous quarter. Malayala Manorama had added 86,000 readers in Q3 2010 and 2.6 lakh readers in Q2 2010.

The largest read Marathi daily 'Lokmat' is the second largest read language daily in the country. After a continuous growth in last two quarters, Lokmat has seen a slight decline in the last quarter of IRS 2010. Its current AIR stands at 77.12 lakh as compared to 78.09 lakh in previous quarter. Lokmat had added 4.07 lakh readers in Q3 while it added added 41,000 readers in Q2 of IRS 2010.

No. 3 language daily is Tamil newspaper 'Daily Thanthi' which again lost heavily in the second consecutive quarter of IRS 2010. By losing 2.31 lakh readers, the current AIR of Daily Thanthi now stands at 70.14 lakh as compared to 72.45 lakh in previous quarter.  The paper had lost 1.57 lakh readers in the third quarter also.

Another Malayalam daily 'Mathrubhumi' holds the 4th spot though the newspaper has lost 41,000 readers in IRS Q4 2010. According to the AIR data released for the fourth quarter of IRS 2010, it has recorded readership of 66.37 lakh as compared to 66.78 lakh in the last survey. Mathrubhumi had added 1.12 lakh readers in IRS Q3 2010.

Bangla daily 'Anand Bazar Patrika' has also lost 1.05 lakh readers in the current survey. ABP had lost 2.62 lakh readers in IRS Q3 2010 also. Its current AIR now stands at 61.72 lakh as compared to 62.77 lakh in previous quarter.

ABP is closely followed by Telugu daily 'Eenadu' which is India's No.6 language daily. By losing 1.20 lakh readers in the fourth quarter of IRS 2010, Eenadu has recorded an AIR of 60.41 lakh as compared to 61.61 lakh in previous quarter. The newspaper had added 7000 readers in the third quarter of IRS 2010.

At No. 7 is Gujarati daily 'Gujarat Samachar' which has lost 72,000 readers in Q4 IRS 2010; 'Gujrat Samachar' has recorded AIR of 51.77 lakh in the current survey as compared to 52.49 lakh in Q3 IRS 2010. The daily had added 31,000 readers in the third quarter of IRS 2010.

The growth story can be seen from the eighth largest language daily where the Tamil daily 'Dinakaran' has recovered its previous quarter's loss up to some extent in IRS Q4 2010. By adding 1.16 lakh readers in IRS Q4 2010, the daily has recorded an AIR of 49.77 lakh as compared to 48.61 lakh in the previous quarter. Dinakaran had lost 1.80 lakh readers in the third quarter of IRS Q3 2010.

Telugu daily 'Sakshi' holds the 9^th position firmly by maintaining its high growth rate. The newspaper has added another 1.38 lakh readers this quarter to take its AIR to 49.54 lakh as compared to 48.16 lakh in the third quarter of IRS 2010. Sakshi had added 1.78 lakh readers in IRS Q3 2010.

At No.10 is Marathi daily 'Daily Sakal' which has registered a marginal growth and added 13,000 readres in the current quarter. Its current AIR stands at 46.52 lakh as compared to 46.39 lakh in the previous quarter. The newspaper had added 4.37 lakh readers in Q3, 1.1 lakh readers in Q2.

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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.

Rajat.arora@bestmediainfo.com

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