IRS Q2 2011: Top 10 dailies in Kolkata

8 out of 10 newspapers in Kolkata lose readers in the second quarter of IRS 2011

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | October 11, 2011

Kolkata has always been a stronghold of Ananda Bazar Patrika where the daily has been a leader by a long shot. However, ABP has lost a few readers, recording an AIR of 26.99 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 compared with 27.17 lakh in the previous quarter and 28.07 lakh in IRS Q2 2010. Thus, the daily has lost 3.8 per cent readers over the past one year.

The second most read daily of Kolkata is Bartaman which has recorded an AIR of 10.83 lakh against 11.03 lakh in the previous quarter and 10.02 lakh in IRS Q2 2010. It has registered 8.1 per cent growth over the second quarter of last year.

The No. 3 and No. 4 positions are held by English dailies in Kolkata. While The Telegraph remains the most read English daily in the city, The Times of India has almost half the readership of The Telegraph.

The current AIR of The Telegraph stands at 9.13 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 against 9.07 lakh in the previous quarter and 8.83 lakh in IRS Q2 2010.

TOI has lost a few readers since the previous quarter and also the second quarter of IRS 2010. It has an AIR of 5.35 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 compared with 5.52 lakh in the last round of the survey and 5.59 lakh in IRS Q2 2010.

Sanmarg is the fifth largest read daily with 4.42 lakh readers against 4.68 lakh in the previous quarter and 4.7 lakh in IRS Q2 2010.

The No. 6 daily Aajkaal has been losing its base in the state. The daily lost 9.3 per cent readers in the current round over the previous quarter and 20 per cent readers over the second quarter of last year. Its current AIR stands at 2.94 lakh against 3.27 lakh in the previous quarter and 3.67 lakh in IRS Q2 2010.

Sangbad Pratidin has lost a few readers since the last quarter but it has registered an overall growth of 9.6 per cent over the past one year. It has an AIR of 2.74 lakh against 2.9 lakh in the previous quarter and 2.5 lakh in IRS Q2 2010.

At No. 8, Ganashakti, has also lost more than 20 per cent readers in the past one year, a reflection of the CPI(M)'s declining fortunes in the state. Its current AIR stands at 2.19 lakh compared with 2.22 lakh in the previous quarter and 2.74 lakh in IRS Q2 2010.

The Statesman has 1.37 lakh readers in IRS Q2 2011 against 1.49 lakh in the previous quarter and 1.29 lakh in IRS Q2 2010.

Hindi daily Prabhat Khabar is at No.10 position in Kolkata with an average issue readership of 70,000. The newspaper had 66,000 readers in the previous quarter and 77,000 readers in IRS Q2 2010.

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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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