IRS 2011 Q1: Poor show by Hindi dailies in Chandigarh; English grows

Even as Kannada dailies continue to dominate the Karnataka newspaper market, average issue readership (AIR) for any English daily has gone up by 30 per cent in the state, adding 2.79 lakh readers, as compared to last year. Meanwhile, ‘Any Marathi’ daily and ‘Any Tamil’ daily have been witnessing decline in AIR, reporting a combined loss in AIR of 62,000 in a year.

Led by the growth of Prajavani, which has added 11.62 lakh readers, ‘Any Kannada’ daily has gained an AIR of 89.87 lakh in the state. All seven Kannada dailies in the list of most popular dailies (as per the highest AIR numbers) in Karnataka have seen growth in their AIR numbers as per IRS 2011 Q1 data.

Meanwhile, a close fight can be seen among the top English dailies in the state with The Times of India reporting an AIR of 5.35 lakh (a growth of 19.69 per cent). Deccan Herald follows closely with a growth of 37.79 per cent, gaining an AIR of 4.23 lakh. The third most popular English daily in the state is Bangalore Mirror with an AIR of 1.60 lakh in IRS 2011 Q1.

Despite the growth seen in the AIR (average issue readership) of topline dailies, Eenadu and Sakshi, in Andhra Pradesh, ‘Any Telugu’ daily has seen a decline in AIR of almost 3 per cent as per the IRS 2011 Q1, as compared to last year. Meanwhile, all the top ten English dailies in the state have seen decline in their AIR numbers. With the loss of an AIR of 10,000, ‘Any English’ daily has gained an average issue readership of 11.15 lakh in the state.

While, Telugu daily Sakshi has added 4.24 lakh readers, registering an AIR of 49.88 lakh in IRS 2011 Q1, Andhra Jyoti has seen decline as it loses 4.02 lakh readers, reporting an AIR of 20.04 lakh. Eenadu is the most read daily in the state with an AIR of 59.08 lakh, a marginal growth of 0.8 per cent. Losing a massive 8.79 lakh readers, Telugu daily Vartha’s AIR has come down to 3.62 lakh in IRS 2011 Q1 from 12.41 lakh last year.

Andhra Bhoomi has also lost readers despite its AIR going up to 2.65 lakh. On the other hand, Andhra Prabha has reported positive growth in its AIR which stands at 1.21 lakh, a growth of 18.63 per cent.

Meanwhile, ‘Any English’ daily has witnessed a decline in readership, registering an AIR of 11.15 lakh, down from 11.25 lakh last year. Deccan Chronicle is the most read English daily in the state with an AIR of 7.35 lakh, a decline of 2.39 per cent. The Hindu and the Times of India are among the English dailies to have made their entry into the list of top ten dailies in the state. While The Hindu has recorded an AIR of 2.97 lakh, The Times of India has seen an AIR of 1.12 lakh.

AIR of ‘Any Urdu’ daily has grown by 6.67 per cent in the state, reporting an AIR of 1.44 lakh in IRS 2011 Q1, up from 1.35 lakh last year.

An estimated Rs 100-crore ad market, Jharkhand has continued to see growth in the average issue readership (AIR) of newspapers across languages as per the Indian Readership Survey 2011 Q1 as well. With Hindustan and Prabhat Khabar witnessing double digit increase in AIR, the readership of ‘Any Hindi’ dailies has gone up to 32.68 lakh, a growth of 28.81 per cent as compared to last year.

Adding almost 5 lakh average issue readership in a year, Hindi newspaper Hindustan has reported an AIR of 18.48 lakh, up 28.81 per cent. Meanwhile, Prabhat Khabar has maintained its second position in the state with an AIR of 13.71 lakh, a growth of 36.76 per cent as it added 3.90 lakh readers.

Hindi daily Dainik Jagran has reported an AIR of 9.15 lakh, witnessing a growth of 7.14 per cent. Aj has also been able to add substantial number (33,000 in a year) of readers, taking its AIR to 1.10 lakh. Inext, the bilingual daily from the stable of Jagran Prakashan, has reported an AIR of 80,000 in IRS 2011 Q1.

English dailies in the state have also received positive response from the readers as AIR of ‘Any English’ daily has grown by 10.22 per cent in a year. However, The Telegraph, which is the most read English daily in the state, has seen a decline of 7.69 per cent in its AIR, which stands at 72,000. Leadership of The Telegraph is being strongly challenged in the state by The Times of India as its AIR grows by 33.96 per cent, taking its current AIR to 71,000 – just a thousand less than that of The Telegraph. English daily Hindustan Times has reported an AIR of 57,000, a growth of 3.64 per cent, with the paper adding 2,000 average issue readership in actual terms. With more than a 100 per cent growth, The Hindu has gained momentum in the state, registering an AIR of 21,000.

Bengali dailies have also been able to garner positive trends in the state as AIR of ‘Any Bengali’ daily stands at 50,000, a growth of 51.51 per cent, primarily led by the growth of Bengali daily Ananda Bazar Patrika (AIR of 42,000 and a growth of 40 per cent).

Led by the growth of Hindustan and Prabhat Khabar, with both adding nearly 4 lakh readers in a year, the AIR (average issue readership) of ‘Any Hindi’ daily in Bihar has reached 63.96 lakh as per the Indian Readership Survey 2011 Q1 data, a growth of 7.59 per cent as compared to last year. Meanwhile, in percentage terms, English dailies have grown by 4.15 per cent, however, adding just 10,000 more readers in actual terms.

Barring Rashtriya Sahara and Inext, all Hindi dailies in the list of top ten dailies have witnessed their AIR numbers heading north. Hindustan seems to be a clear leader in the state reporting an AIR of 47.29 lakh, adding 2.54 lakh readers during the year. At second position, Dainik Jagran has maintained its growth, adding 42,000 readers, which takes its AIR to 25.68 lakh. Meanwhile, Prabhat Khabar has added 1.63 lakh new readers as its AIR shoots up to 3.36 lakh, a massive growth of 94.22 per cent. However, there is no change in the AIR of Hindi daily Aj, which remains at 2.69 lakh in IRS 2011 Q1, the same as the corresponding period of last year.

Meanwhile, there was much cheer for the English dailies in the state, with ‘Any English’ daily reporting an AIR of 2.51 lakh, up from 2.41 lakh last year. Adding 5,000 new readers, The Times of India has registered an AIR of 1.51 lakh, a growth of 3.42 per cent as compared to last year. Hindustan Times has recorded an AIR of 84,000, adding 4,000 readers. Interestingly, adding 14,000 readers, The Hindu has emerged as the highest gainer in terms of AIR among the top ten, registering an AIR of 23,000. This apart, the Economic Times has doubled its AIR from 8,000 last year to 16,000 in IRS 2011 Q1.

Except Dharitri and Nav Bharat, all dailies in the top ten list have reflected a stark picture in Orissa. All English dailies surveyed among the top ten have reported negative growth in average issue readership (AIR), with the AIR of ‘Any English’ daily reported at 3.07 lakh, a decline of 10.23 per cent compared to last year.

Meanwhile, losing AIR of 1.24 lakh, ‘Any Oriya’ daily has registered an AIR of 35.50 lakh. With a decline of 6,000 readers, Hindi dailies too provided no respite in the Orissa market.

Dharitri, the lone daily that has reported rise in average issue readership by 6.50 per cent, is giving close competition to Sambad that has recorded decline of almost 4 per cent in AIR. While Sambad has recorded AIR of 15.81 lakh, Dharitri reached at 14.42 lakh in recent IRS results.

Samaj and The Samaya both have registered decline in readership losing AIR of 1.77 lakh, combined. English dailies, the Times of India, the New Indian Express, the Hindu and the Telegraph, all have witnessed decline in the average issue readership as all four lose 58,000 readers combined.

Meanwhile, Hindi daily Dainik Jagran had reported decline of 13.95 per cent in readership, however, with growth of 4.76 per cent Nav Bharat has got AIR of 22,000 in Orissa.

With the rise in average issue readership (AIR) for most of the dailies, Marathi dailies have maintained lead in Maharashtra followed by English dailies, however far behind in the race. The leader in the space is Marathi daily Lokmat with an AIR of 73.05 lakh, a marginal decline of 0.76 per cent compare to the period last year.

Led by the highest growth in AIR (in terms of actual numbers) by adding more than 5 lakh readers, Sakal has reported an AIR of 45.11 lakh. It is followed by Pudhari with steady, however, marginal decline of 2.33 per cent. Meanwhile, English daily the Times of India has seen a second highest growth (after Daily Sakal) in AIR adding 2.25 lakh readers, has accounted an AIR of 20.50 lakh.

Losing nearly 4 lakh readers, readership of Punya Nagari has headed south reporting AIR 18.10 lakh, decline of 18.47 per cent – further paving path for the one step higher ranking for TOI. Registering marginal growth of 2.41 per cent, Maharashtra Times has maintained its positive growth. Loksatta, the No7 daily of the state, has also been losing average issue readership by 7.52 per cent over last year, have garnered AIR of 9.84 lakh.

Among the talks of Marathi and English, Gujarati daily Gujrat Samachar has been able to make its place reporting an AIR of 8.28 lakh, a robust growth of 26.61 per cent. The last two dailies, in the list of top ten dallies in Maharashtra, Mumbai Mirror and Deshonatti have also reported a declining trend with AIR of both the dailies have headed south, whopping decline for later has been reported as it loses 2.34 lakh readers in a year.