IRS Q3 2011: Top 10 Dailies in Bihar

Prabhat Khabar improves its growth rate further; Dainik Jagran, Hindustan, Aj and the Hindu are other gainers in this quarter

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | December 29, 2011

The third quarter of IRS 2011 has seen all four top dailies in the state growing with Prabhat Khabar and Dainik Jagran posting robust growth. There is a new entrant in the top 10 list. Roznama Rashtriya Sahara has taken the No. 8 position by replacing Hindustan Times.

The growth story of Bihar's No. 1 daily Hindustan continues in the current survey, though the growth rate has slowed to 1.1 per cent. The daily has recorded an AIR of 48.97 lakh in IRS Q3 2011 against 48.42 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 47.29 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

The second most read newspaper, Dainik Jagran, has been able to maintain its growth rate at around 5 per cent in this quarter too. The daily had registered a growth of 6.2 per cent in the previous quarter. Jagran's AIR in IRS Q3 2011 stands at 28.61 lakh compared with 27.27 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 25.68 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

Prabhat Khabar has registered a robust growth of 38 per cent in the third quarter of IRS 2011. The newspaper has been consistently growing at over 20 per cent every quarter for the past few rounds. The daily has recorded an AIR of 5.87 lakh in IRS Q3 2011 compared to 4.26 lakh in the previous quarter and 3.36 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

Bihar's No. 4 Hindi daily Aj has also registered marginal growth and added 17,000 readers over the last quarter. It had added 17,000 readers in last quarter. Aj has recorded an AIR of 3.03 lakh in IRS Q3 2011 against 2.86 lakh in the previous quarter and 2.69 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

English daily The Times of India, at No. 5, has seen de-growth in this quarter. TOI has recorded an AIR of 1.52 lakh in IRS Q3 2011 against 1.62 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 1.51 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

Rashtriya Sahara holds the No. 6 position despite losing some readers in this round. The daily has an AIR of 1.16 lakh in IRS Q3 2011 against 1.19 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 98,000 in IRS Q1 2011.

I Next has seen a more than 10 per cent growth in its readership in IRS Q3 2011. Its current AIR stands at 1.02 lakh compared with 92,000 in the previous quarter. The daily had an AIR of 91,000 in IRS Q1 2011.

Roznama Rashtriya Sahara has made an entry at No. 8 position with an AIR of 82,000 in IRS Q3 2011.

Hindustan Times has registered a decline of about 10 per cent this quarter. HT has recorded an AIR of 80,000 in IRS Q3 2011 against 88,000 in the previous quarter and 84,000 in IRS Q1 2011.

The Hindu holds the 10th spot with AIR of 33,000 in IRS Q3 2011 against 30,000 in the previous quarter and 23,000 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 even calculate and compare cost-benefits of dailies based on the AIR figure. Hence, it is perhaps the most relevant to study readership trends as well in terms of AIR.

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