IRS Q2 2011: Top 10 dailies in Tamil Nadu

9 out of top 10 dailies in the state see green; Deccan Chronicle surpasses The Times of India in Tamil Nadu

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | October 5, 2011

The second quarter results of Indian Readership Survey in 2011 have been outstanding for publications in the state with nine of the top 10 dailies registering growth in IRS Q2 2011. Deccan Chronicle has toppled The Times of India to become the 2^nd most read English daily in the state after The Hindu.

The largest read daily of Tamil Nadu, Daily Thanthi, has retained its leadership and added 1.6 per cent readers in IRS Q2 2011. The Tamil daily has registered an AIR of 70.97 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 compared with 69.86 lakh in the last quarter and 72.63 lakh in IRS Q2 2010. Thus the paper has recorded a loss in readership of 2.3 per cent over the second quarter of last year.

The No.2 daily of the state, Dinakaran, too has recorded a slight increase in AIR in the current survey. Its AIR now stands at 50.38 lakh against 49.95 lakh in the previous quarter and 49.91 lakh in IRS Q2 2010.

The 3^rd major player, Dinamalar, has also registered growth of 4.1 per cent in the second quarter of IRS 2011. Its current AIR stands at 26.53 lakh compared with 25.48 lakh in the previous quarter and 28.59 lakh in IRS Q2 2010. Thus, the paper has lost 7.2 per cent readers over Q2 of IRS 2010.

Tamil Nadu, the traditional stronghold for The Hindu, has not been a fertile ground for the daily for five consecutive quarters. With a marginal loss of 0.9 per cent readers, its AIR now stands at 10.55 lakh compared with 10.65 lakh in the previous quarter and 11.31 lakh in IRS Q2 2010. The Hindu has seen an overall decline of 6.7 per cent over the second quarter survey in last year.

The No.5 daily of Tamil Nadu is Dinamani which has recorded an AIR of 5.13 lakh compared with 4.76 lakh in the previous quarter and 5.12 lakh in IRS Q2 2010.

Malai Malar has added 6,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011 to take its AIR at 4.17 lakh against 4.11 lakh in the last survey and 5.56 lakh in IRS Q2 2010. It has recorded an overall loss of 25 per cent over the past one year.

Deccan Chronicle has toppled The Times of India to become the 2nd largest read English daily and No.7 newspaper of the state. DC has recorded an AIR of 2.4 lakh compared with 1.96 lakh in the previous quarter and 2.5 lakh in IRS Q2 2010.

The Times of India has also grown by 6.7 per cent in the current survey. The daily has an AIR of 2.22 lakh readers in IRS Q2 2011 against 2.08 lakh in the previous quarter and 2.21 lakh in Q2 2010.

The New Indian Express has recorded an AIR of 1.35 lakh against 1.32 lakh in the previous quarter and 1.08 lakh in Q2 2010.

Tamizh Murasu has an AIR of 1.16 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 compared with 1.14 lakh in IRS 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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