IRS Q1 2012: Top 10 Hindi magazines

Seven of the top 10 Hindi magazines witness decline. Saras Salil, Pratiyogita Darpan and Grih Shobha fall sharply

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | June 22, 2012

The results of the first quarter of IRS 2012 indicate gloomy days ahead for top Hindi magazines as seven out of the top 10 have witnessed decline. Three magazines – Saras Salil, Pratiyogita Darpan and Grih Shobha — have fallen sharply in this round. Besides, Samanya Gyan Darpan, which entered the top 10 club at No. 3 in the last survey, has dislodged Saras Salil from the No. 2 position.

Educational Hindi magazine Pratiyogita Darpan continues to lose readers for the last three quarters in a row. However, it leads vernacular magazines with an AIR of 18.93 lakh against 20.01 lakh in the previous quarter. The magazine lost 1.08 lakh readers in IRS Q1 2012, 24,000 readers in IRS Q4 2011, 1.29 lakh readers in IRS Q3 2011. It had added 1.27 lakh readers in IRS Q2 2011.

Samanya Gyan Darpan has acquired the No. 2 position this time despite losing 34,000 readers in IRS Q1 2012. Its current AIR stands at 16.44 lakh compared with 16.78 lakh in IRS Q4 2011.

With a huge loss of 1.67 lakh readers at one go, Saras Salil has slipped to No. 3 in the current survey. It has an AIR of 16.01 lakh compared with 17.68 lakh in the previous quarter. The magazine had lost 1.73 lakh readers IRS Q4 2011 and 98,000 readers in IRS Q3 2011 but added 94,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011.

At No.  4, Meri Saheli has added 46,000 readers in the first quarter of IRS Q1 2012 and recorded an AIR of 12.59 lakh compared with 12.13 lakh in the previous quarter. It had added 4,000 readers in IRS Q4 2011, 35,000 readers in IRS Q3 2011 and 74,000 readers in IRS Q2 2011.

After losing 54,000 readers in the last quarter, Cricket Samrat has gained a few readers in the current survey and recorded an AIR of 11.76 lakh against 11.54 lakh in the previous quarter. It had lost 5,000 readers in the previous quarter and 54,000 readers in IRS Q3 2011. Cricket Samrat had an AIR of 11.59 lakh in IRS Q3 2011, 12.13 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 9.84 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

At No. 6, India Today Hindi has lost a few readers in this quarter also after losing 44,000 readers in the previous round. Its AIR now stands at 10.51 lakh compared with 10.72 lakh in the previous quarter, 11.16 lakh in IRS Q3 2011, 11.44 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 11.37 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

Women's magazine Grehlakshmi has strengthened its position at No. 7 and widened the gap with Grih Shobha. By adding 6,000 readers, Grehlakshmi has taken its AIR to 9.58 lakh in IRS Q1 2011 compared with 9.52 lakh in the previous quarter. It had 9.83 lakh readers in IRS Q3 2011 and 10.08 lakh readers in IRS Q2 2011.

Grih Shobha has witnessed a huge decline of around 10 per cent in IRS Q1 2012. The magazine has an AIR of 8.6 lakh in the current survey compared with 9.51 lakh in the previous quarter. It had an AIR of 9.9 lakh in IRS Q3 2011 and 10.10 lakh in IRS Q2 2011.

Champak has recorded an AIR of 8.11 lakh in IRS Q1 2012 compared with 8.53 lakh in IRS Q4 2011, 8.59 lakh in IRS Q3 2011, 8.73 lakh in IRS Q2 2011 and 8.43 lakh in IRS Q1 2011.

The quarterly health magazine Nirogdham remains at No. 10 with 7.47 lakh readers in IRS Q1 2012 against 7.52 lakh readers in IRS Q4 2011, 7.73 lakh readers in IRS Q3 2011 and 7.63 lakh readers in IRS Q2 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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