IRS Q2 2011: Top 10 dailies in Maharashtra

Most dailes in the state, except Lokmat and Deshonatti, lost readership in this round

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | October 4, 2011

The second quarter of Indian Readership Survey 2011 has proved to be a nightmare for most of the top newspapers in Maharashtra except Lokmat and Deshonatti. In the first quarter of IRS 2011, 5 out of the top 10 dailies had registered growth in the state.

Maharashtra's No.1 daily Lokmat continues to be a distant leader in the state. The largest read Marathi daily has added 1.7 per cent readers in IRS Q2 2011 to take its AIR to 74.26 lakh compared with 73.05 in the previous quarter and 73.96 lakh in IRS Q2 2010. Thus, the daily has grown by 0.4 per cent over the last one year.

At No.2, Daily Sakal has seen a marginal decline of 2.5 per cent in the current round but it has grown by more than 7 per cent over the last one year. It has recorded an AIR of 43.99 lakh compared with 45.11 lakh readers in IRS Q1 2011 and 41.07 lakh in IRS Q2 2010.

Pudhari continues to be at No.3 position in Maharashtra despite a loss of 3 per cent in IRS Q2 2011. Its AIR stands at 25.11 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 compared with 25.89 lakh in the previous survey and 25.14 lakh IRS Q2 2010. The daily has lost just 3,000 readers over the last year.

The country's most read English daily, The Times of India, has seen a slight dip in its readership in the state in IRS Q2 2011. TOI has recorded an AIR of 20.12 lakh compared with 20.5 lakh in the previous quarter and 19.18 lakh in IRS Q2 2010. Thus, the newspaper has seen an overall growth of 5 per cent in the past one year.

The No.5 daily, Punya Nagari, has continued to decline in this quarter also. The daily has lost a further 5.2 per cent readers and recorded AIR of 17.16 lakh compared with 18.1 lakh in the previous quarter and 21.82 in IRS Q2 2010. Punya Nagari has lost 21.4 per cent readers over the year.

Marathi daily Maharashtra Times, from the TOI Group, has been able to hold its readers to an extent in this quarter losing only 8,000 readers. Its current AIR stands at 11.40 lakh compared with 11.48 lakh in the previous quarter and 11.5 in IRS Q2 2010.

At No.7 is another Marathi daily, Loksatta, which has also registered a marginal decline. Its AIR stands at 9.75 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 compared with 9.84 lakh in the first quarter of IRS 2011 and 10.82 lakh in Q2 2010. Overall, the paper has seen a decline of 10 per cent over the year.

Deshonatti, which had lost its 8^th position to Gujarat Samachar in the previous quarter, has regained its position in this quarter. The daily has added 12.2 per cent readers in the current round to take its AIR to 8.35 lakh compared with 7.44 lakh in the previous quarter and 10.06 lakh in IRS Q2 2010. Thus, the daily has lost 17 per cent readers during this year.

After robust growth in the last few quarter, Gujarati daily Gujarat Samachar has seen a dip of 6.3 per cent in readership in IRS Q2 2011. Its current AIR stands at 7.76 lakh against 8.28 lakh in the previous quarter and 7.11 lakh in IRS Q2 2010.

Mumbai Mirror, the tabloid English daily from the TOI stable, has lost 2.8 per cent readership over the last quarter. In IRS Q2 2011, the paper has an AIR of 7.58 lakh against 7.8 lakh in the previous quarter and 7.86 lakh 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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Info@BestMediaInfo.com