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How Your Favourite Newspapers And Magazines Fared In The Readership Survey

The results of the latest round of Indian Readership Survey is out and here’s a compilation of how some of the most popular English newspapers and magazines fared. All figures in this story are all-India average issue readership.

Of the 25 English newspapers covered by this round, 12 registered an increase in readership, three remained static, nine registered a drop and one could not be compared as it wasn’t covered during the previous round.

Three newspapers—The New Indian Express (11.26%), The Tribune (15.73%), The Hitavada (13.49%)—enjoyed double digit percentage growth in readership while only Mid-Day (-10.02%) suffered a double-digit percentage decline in readership, apart from Metro Now (-34.93%), which has ceased to be a daily.

The Times of India, the country’s most read English daily, saw a 4.02% rise in countrywide readership and now has 7.1 million readers. The second most read daily, Hindustan Times, dropped 4.21% and now has 3.34 million readers. DNA rose 4.76% to 7.93 lakh readers. The Indian Express, currently on a high with its exclusive publication of the controversal Liberhan report, gained 3.02% and now has 2.05 lakh readers. The Hindu saw a decline of 2.95% and now has 21.69 lakh readers.

Among business dailies, The Economic Times leads the pack by a big margin with 7.57 lakh readers, down 3.32% from the previous round. Mint is the second largest business daily with 1.59 lakh readers, down 9.14% from the previous round. Business Standard, which was not covered during the previous rounds, has 1.48 lakh readers, while Hindu Business Line gained 9.73% and now has 1.24 lakh readers. The readership of The Financial Express stayed the same with 38,000 readers.

Mint’s readership decline is seen as surprising by some observers. “...the trend in Mint’s readership in Maharashtra (Mumbai, the financial capital of India) is surprising; IRS R2 2009 reports Mint’s Maharashtra AIR at a modest 15,000, a sharp drop from 25,000 readers in IRS R2 2008. We note that IRS has had issues in capturing the high-end readership of niche publications, which limits its utility,” Kotak Institutional Equities analyst Amit Kumar wrote in a report.

Here’s the complete picture for key English dailies.

Magazines

While some specialty and lifestyle magazines scored impressive gains in readership, most news and business news magazines saw a decline.

The readership of Femina Girl grew nearly ten fold from 1.03 lakh to 10.72 lakh during this round. Readership of Elle grew 135.42% to 1.13 lakh. Society (32.23%), Digit (22.07%), Auto Car (15.08%), Overdrive (19.72%) and Savvy (23.08%) were among publications that saw a double-digit percentage growth in readership. Outlook Money grew 25% and now has 1.05 lakh readers. Business and Economy gained 14.63% and now has 94,000 readers.

Among the news magazines, India Today dropped 3.94% to 18.78 lakh readers, while Outlook fell 6.75% to 4.97 lakh readers. The Week fell 4.04% to 3.09 lakh readers.

Among business mags, Business Today lost 5.92% and now has 2.7 lakh readers. Business India fell 2.7% to 2.16 lakh readers, while Business World dropped 3.64% to 1.59 lakh readers. Outlook Business grew 9.04% to 1.81 lakh readers.

Among the magazines that saw double digit percentage falls are General Knowledge Today (-93.04%), Champak (-16.06%) and New Woman (-17.39%).

Here are the complete figures for English magazines.

Nov 25, 2009 5:40 AM ET

India Newsstand Photo: © Chris Fredriksson / Alamy

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Posted In: Advertising, Media & Publishing, Magazines, Newspapers, Research & Metrics, Metrics, Research, Countries, Asia, India

  • Krishna Kumar

    The English media has to be blame itself for the fall in readership. Most of the English newspapers and magazines are politically parochial. Their reaction to news events are predictable. Even though India lives on villages, the news about villages are totally absent from the English media. The English media is obsessed with bollywood, fashion and food fads. Some other publications like India Today, The Hindu, Outlook are too politically parochial to be palatable for most of their readers. It is the arrogance of their owners,  that is responsible for the fall in readership

  • Sruthijith KK

    Thanks Observer. That was Outlook. Corrected.

  • Observer

    A magazine name is possibly missing here : "Among the news magazines, India Today dropped 3.94% to 18.78 lakh readers, while XXX fell 6.75% to 4.97 lakh readers. "

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