IRS Q3 2011: Top 10 English Magazines

Five out of the top 10 English magazines across genres have registered a decline; several changes in the pecking order in the third quarter of IRS 2011

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | December 23, 2011

India's largest read English magazine, India Today, has lost more readers in the third quarter of IRS 2011 than it had added in the previous quarter. The weekly has lost 88,000 readers in IRS Q3 2011 while it had added 74,000 readers in the second quarter of the Indian Readership Survey. The current AIR of India Today stands at 16.36 lakh compared to 17.24 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 16.50 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

General Knowledge Today has made a comeback at 2nd spot by adding 1.1 lakh readers in IRS Q3 2011. The magazine has recorded an AIR of 10.87 lakh in this quarter compared to 9.77 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 10.02 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

Although Readers Digest has been pushed down to No. 3 position, it has been able to hold its readers in this round. Its current AIR remains at 9.98 lakh, same as in IRS Q2 2011. RD had added 28,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011.

Another educational English monthly, Competition Success Review, is at No. 4 with an AIR of 6.57 lakh in IRS Q3 2011. CSR had recorded an AIR of 6.54 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 6.84 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

English weekly magazine Outlook has registered a marginal loss of 12,000 readers in IRS Q3 2011. Its AIR now stands at 4.44 lakh compared to 4.56 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 4.38 lakh in IRS Q1 2011. The magazine had lost 29,000 readers in Q1 2011.

The Week, which had acquired the 6^th rank in the previous quarter, has held on to its position despite losing some readers in IRS Q3 2011. It had recorded more than 22 per cent growth in IRS Q2 2011. Its current AIR stands at 3.87 lakh compared to 3.96 lakh in IRS Q2 2011.

The 7^th most-read English magazine until last quarter, Filmfare, has been pushed to No.10. The 7^th spot has this time gone to another magazine for B-town, Stardust, which has added 43,000 readers in IRS Q3 2011. Its current AIR stands at 3.85 lakh compared to 3.42 lakh in IRS Q2 2011.

Business Today, which made its entry to the top 10 list of English Magazines in the previous quarter, has jumped to No. 8 in IRS Q3 2011. It has recorded an AIR of 3.45 lakh compared to 3.33 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 3.09 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

Femina has lost a few readers this quarter to take its current AIR to 3.31 lakh against 3.39 lakh in IRS Q2 2011. It had an AIR of 3.37 lakh in IRS Q1 2011. The magazine holds 9th position.

Pushed down to No. 10 from No.7, Bollywood's fortnightly magazine Filmfare has registered an AIR of 3.27 lakh in IRS Q3 2011 compared to 3.66 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 3.82 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 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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