IRS Q2 2011: Top 10 dailies in West Bengal

Unlike in the last quarter, four out of top 10 dailies in the state registered some growth in this survey round

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | October 4, 2011

No.1 Bengali daily Anand Bazar Patrika has been continuously losing readers for four consecutive quarters. The daily has recorded an AIR of 59.92 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 compared with 60.48 lakh in the previous quarter and 64.66 lakh in IRS Q2 2010. Thus, the daily has lost 7.3 per cent readership over the past one year.

Bartaman, also a Bengali daily, has registered a slight growth of 1.3 per cent to take its AIR to 29.63 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 compared with 29.26 lakh in the previous quarter and 28.11 lakh in the second quarter of IRS 2010. The paper has grown by 5.4 per cent over the past one year.

At No.3, English language daily from the ABP stable, The Telegraph, has registered an AIR of 10.39 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 compared with  10.35 lakh in the previous quarter and 10.27 lakh in IRS Q2 2010.

Sangbad Pratidin has also seen a decline of 4.6 per cent in the second quarter of IRS 2011. Its AIR now stands at 9.58 lakh compared with 10.04 lakh in the previous quarter and 11.03 in IRS Q2 2010. Thus, the paper has lost 13.1 per cent readers in the last one year.

Ganashakti, a popular Bengali daily which is also a CPI(M) mouthpiece, remains at No. 5 in the state with an AIR of 7.9 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 compared with 7.61 lakh in the last survey and 9.6 lakh in IRS Q2 2010. It has seen a dip of 17.7 per cent over the past one year.

At No.6 is Bengali daily Aajkal. The paper has lost 3.5 per cent of its readers in IRS Q2 2011 to take its total loss of readers at 20 per cent during one year. It has an AIR of 6.28 lakh. It had recorded an AIR of 6.51 lakh in the previous quarter and 7.85 in IRS Q2 2010.

The Times of India has also lost some readers in West Bengal. The English daily is at 7th spot with AIR of 6 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 compared with 6.3 lakh in the previous quarter and 6.42 in IRS Q2 2010.

Uttar Banga Sambad has added 4,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011. Its current AIR stands at 5.16 lakh compared with 5.12 lakh in the previous quarter and 4.95 lakh in IRS Q2 2010. It has grown by 4.2 per cent over the past one year.

Last quarter's only gainer, Sanmarg, has lost 4.4 per cent readers this quarter and recorded an AIR of 4.8 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 compared with 5.02 lakh in the previous quarter and 5.05 lakh in IRS Q2 2010. The daily has recorded a loss of 5 per cent over the second quarter of IRS 2010.

Sambad is losing its base in the state having lost 36.6 per cent readers in one year. At No.10 position, the daily has recorded an AIR of 1.85 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 compared with 2.21 lakh in the previous quarter and 2.92 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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