IRS Q2 2010: Decline in readership among top publications

Indian Readership Survey is out with the quarter two statistics and the message that was clearly been shrieked out from it, is that the future for the print media doesn't seem too bright.

In top ten dailies, quarter two saw an increase of 225,000 readers when compared to quarter one. Within the top three, though Dainik Jagran is leading, it has fallen by 388,000 readers from quarter one and currently stands with a readership of 15,925,000. And Dainik Bhaskar is second with a total of 13,303,000 but when compared to the last quarter, this too has fallen by 26,000 readers. On the other hand, Hindustan has seen an impressive increase by 229,000 readers in quarter two.

In top ten Hindi Dailies, there has been an overall increase in this quarter with a figure of 64,882,000. However similar to the previous category, the top two have seen a fall when compared to the last quarter, that is Dainik Jagran and Dainik Bhaskar again. Hindustan has seen the increase that as mentioned earlier.

Among the top ten English Dailies, quarter two has seen an overall increase. Times of India has maintained its steady readership and is still the leading English daily. Hindustan Times has seen a decrease of 14,000 in this quarter when compared to the last quarter. The Hindu on the other hand has seen an increase of 26,000 readers in this quarter.

Amongst magazines and between the top ten Hindi magazines, quarter two has seen an overall decline of 794,000 readers. Saras Salil tops the list in both the quarters, however with a major decline of 164,000 readers in the second quarter. However Pratiyogita Darpan has seen an increase of 61,000 in the second quarter. And India Today is third on the list and has declined from the previous quarter by 10,000 readers.

Within the top ten English Magazines, all three in the top three have seen a decline in the second quarter. India Today, the leading weekly saw a decline by 17,000 readers in this quarter. Readers Digest saw a decline of 119,000 readers. General Knowledge Today, third on the list, saw a fall of 36,000 readers.

All this figures only goes on to indicate what the future of print media may look like. This decline is reflected in the top language magazines as well. Overall this category has seen a fall of 998,000 readers. The top three magazines have all fallen in their readership in the second quarter. Vanitha being number one in this category, which is a Malayalam Fortnightly, had a readership of 2,751,000 in this quarter when compared to 3,035,000 in the previous quarter. Kumudam, another language Fortnightly saw a decrease of 25,000 readers in this quarter. Balarama, which is a Malayalam weekly, saw a decline of 167,000 readers which is a huge number.

However most publications are still leading in the markets in their respective genre, it can clearly be seen how there is a definite decline in terms of readership between quarter one and quarter two. This indicates that the path for the print media, once having reached its peak is now rapidly declining. In a world where consumers can reach out to real time news through new media and broadcast media, one can only look on at the grim fate of the print media. | By Janees Antoo [janees(at)adgully.com]