IRS Q2 2011: Top 10 English Magazines

India Today grows for a change; the new entrant in top 10 list in Q1 'The Week' acquires 6^th spot

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | September 30, 2011

After losing readers continuously from few weeks, India's largest read English magazine India Today has added 74,000 readers in the second quarter of Indian Readership Survey (IRS) data released for the 2011. The magazine had lost 7.7% readers in last one year. The current AIR of India Today stands at 17.24 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 as compared to 16.50 lakh in the previous quarter.

At 2nd spot, 'Readers Digest' has made a comeback after remaining at No.3 for 2 quarters. Readers Digest was replaced from No.2 position by 'General Knowledge Today' in IRS Q4 2010. By adding 28,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011, RD has recorded an AIR of 9.98 lakh in as compared to 9.6 lakh in the previous quarter. The educational magazine had an AIR of 9.74 lakh in IRS Q4 2010 and 12.7 lakh in IRS Q1 2010.

Loss of 25,000 readers in this quarter has pushed 'General Knowledge Today' to No.3 position. The magazine has recorded an AIR of 9.77 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 as compared to 10.02 lakh in the previous quarter. It had average issue readership of 10 lakh in IRS Q4 2010 and 9.99 lakh in IRS Q1 2010.

Another educational English monthly magazine 'Competition Success Review' has lost a 30,000 readers this quarter. CSR has recorded an AIR of 6.54 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 as compared to 6.84 lakh in IRS Q1 2011, 7.04 lakh in IRS Q4 2010 and 6.86 lakh in IRS Q1 2010.

English weekly magazine 'Outlook' has added 18,000 readers this quarter to take its AIR at 4.56 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 as compared to 4.38 lakh in the previous quarter. The magazine had lost 29,000 readers in Q1 2011.

The magazine that made an entry into top 10 list in last round of IRS now has acquired 6^th spot in the country. The new No.6 magazine is 'The Week' which has grown by more than 22% in one quarter. Its current AIR stands at 3.96 lakh as compared to 3.25 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

Bollywood's fortnightly magazine 'Filmfare' has again lost in this quarter. It has an AIR of 3.66 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 as compared to 3.82 lakh in the previous quarter.

Another magazine for B-town 'Stardust' has also seen decline by losing 10,000 readers in the current survey. The No.7 English magazine of the country has recorded AIR of 3.42 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 as compared to 3.52 lakh in IRS Q1 2011, 3.67 lakh in IRS Q4 2010 and 3.7 lakh in IRS Q1 2010.

'Femina' has added a few readers in this quarter to take its current AIR at 3.39 lakh as compared to 3.37 lakh in IRS Q1 2011. It had an AIR of 3.28 lakh in IRS Q4 2010 and 3.17 lakh in IRS Q1 2010. The magazine holds 9th spot.

The new member in top 10 list is Business Today which has added 24,000 readers in this quarter to take its AIR at 3.33 lakh in Q2 2011 as compared to 3.09 Q1 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 calculate and compare cost-benefits of dailies based on the AIR figure. Hence, it is perhaps most relevant to study readership trends in terms of AIR.

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