IRS Q3 2011: Top 10 English Dailies

The New Indian Express records maximum growth rate followed by The Tribune, The Hindu, The Telegraph, DNA, The Economic Times, Deccan Chronicle and Mumbai Mirror

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | December 22, 2011

The 3^rd quarter results of Indian Readership Survey have been released this morning. Eight out of the top 10 English dailies in the country have registered growth. The Times of India and Hindustan Times have been able to hold on to their readers during the quarter by losing a mere 4,000 readers each.

The Times of India continues to be the largest read English daily of the country with a marginal loss in IRS Q3 2011 over the second quarter. The AIR data released for IRS Q3 2011 shows that TOI has lost just 4,000 readers to register an AIR of at 74.67 lakh compared to 74.71 lakh in IRS Q2 2011. The No. 1 English daily had added 29,000 readers in the second quarter and 18,000 readers in the first quarter.

The No. 2 English daily, Hindustan Times, has also seen a similar trend this quarter. Its current AIR stands at 37.33 lakh compared to 37.37 lakh in the previous quarter. HT had added 45,000 readers in Q2 2011 and 1 lakh readers in the first quarter of IRS 2011.

The No. 3 English daily, The Hindu, has recovered its losses incurred in the last two rounds of the survey. By adding 92,000 readers in IRS Q3 2011, its current AIR stands at 21.69 lakh compared to 20.77 lakh in the previous quarter. It had lost 18,000 readers in Q2 2011 and 20,000 readers in the first quarter of IRS 2011.

The Telegraph has further strengthened its No. 4 position by adding 57,000 readers in this quarter. The paper has recorded an AIR of 12.66 lakh against 12.09 lakh in the previous quarter. It had added 6,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011 while it lost 35,000 readers in the first quarter.

At No. 5 is Deccan Chronicle which has also registered a marginal growth of 6,000 readers in the third quarter. The daily had added 53,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011 while it had lost 38,000 readers in Q1 2011. Its current AIR stands at 10.94 lakh in IRS Q3 2011 compared to 10.88 lakh in the last round.

DNA continues to be the No. 6 English daily. It has added 39,000 readers this quarter. Its current AIR stands at 8.63 lakh as compared to 8.24 lakh in IRS Q2 2011. DNA had dislodged The Economic Times from No.6 position by adding 72,000 readers in the first quarter of IRS 2011. After that it had added 2,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011.

The Economic Times has strengthened its position at No. 7 which it had acquired in the second quarter of IRS 2011 from Mumbai Mirror. The business daily was pushed to No. 8 position by DNA and Mumbai Mirror in IRS Q1 2011. ET has an AIR of 8.12 lakh in IRS Q3 2011 against 7.85 in IRS Q2 2011 and 7.69 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

Mumbai Mirror has added only 2,000 readers in this quarter after losing 22,000 readers in the second quarter and adding 69,000 readers in the first quarter. Its current AIR stands at 7.60 lakh compared to 7.58 lakh in the last quarter.

By adding 32,000 readers in IRS Q3 2011, The Tribune continues to be the 9^th largest read English daily of the country. Its current AIR now stands at 5.99 lakh compared to 5.67 lakh in IRS Q2 2011.

Remaining at 10^th spot, The New Indian Express has again shown growth and added 34,000 readers in IRS Q3 2011. The daily has recorded an AIR of 5.93 lakh in IRS Q3 2011 compared to 5.59 lakh in the previous quarter.

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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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