IRS 2010: English-publication results analysed

I was not surprised at all. There was only one English daily in the list of top ten newspapers in the country ' Times of India ' and that too almost at almost the bottom, in eighth spot. According to a survey in 2008, TOI, with a circulation of over 3.14 million, was certified as the world's largest selling English-language daily newspaper by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, placing it 8th in the list of largest selling newspapers in any language in the world.

The same year, IRS report declared it as the most widely read English newspaper with a readership of 13.3 million. Fast forward to today and even in 2010, TOI (which started as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce in 1838 and got renamed as Times of India in 1861) still remains India's most read broad-sheet newspaper with a readership of 70.35 lakh.

In the business spectrum, Mint continues it climb and has further strengthened its position as India's second largest business daily. Mint's average issue readership (AIR), at 1,58,000, is 27,000 more than Business Standard which now stands at No. 3 position. Interestingly, readership of Business Standard has declined by about 11.5%, highest for any business daily in this round. Mint enjoys a readership share of 24% in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, which is more than the combined share of the next 3 players in these markets.

Hindustan Times, although a long way behind TOI, has been the fastest growing English daily in India. It added 1.2 lakh readers to its fold. Crucially, in Delhi/NCR, Hindustan Times came out tops as the No. 1 English daily by a clear margin. In a parallel report, Mumbai proved to be a lucrative hunting ground for HT. In the city known as the financial capital of India, Hindustan Times enjoys the title of "the fastest growing English daily' touching 5.38 lakh readers (AIR). DNA and TOI have declined by 73,000 and 10,000 readers in Mumbai, in this round, respectively. The Punjab/Haryana/Chandigarh sector mirrors this trend in for HT.

The list of top ten English magazines is topped by an expected publication ' India Today. Launched in 1975, India Today quickly became the leading news-magazine of the country and with a readership of 17.88 lakh (IRS 2010), stamps its authority as the most widely read magazine we have. But, despite of holding on to its lead against Readers Digest, which is the second English magazine in terms of readership, India Today saw a decline in its readership number as against 2009. Occupying the last step of the rostrum is General Knowledge Today with a readership that just touches the million mark, at 9.9 lakh.

Two entertainment magazines ' Filmfare and Stardust make it to top ten again. Filmfare, with a readership of 3.89 lakh comes in seventh position and Stardust with 3.7 lakh readership is placed eighth. The fortnightly business publication, Business Today, completes the bottom end of the list with 3.25 lakh readership which is a huge gain from 2.7 it managed in 2009. It wasn't an enthusiastic year for publications though, with most of the English magazines experiencing small drops in their readership numbers. India Today and Readers Digest managed to make it in the list of Top ten magazines (overall) published. India Today place third while Readers Digest was 9th.

Adgully gained exclusive access to Mr Ravi Reddy, Vice Chairman, Deccan Chronical and when asked about his take on the result of the IRS Report, he said, "The latest IRS 2010Q1 reports us at an All India No. 5 on AIR amongst English Dailies in the country, when we are the country's 3rd largest English daily in circulation and amongst the fastest growing (Source: Audit Bureau of Circulation July-Dec 2009, Average net paid sales). The data is not a true reflection of our true readership. We have gained about 30,000 copies in the Jul-Dec period which coincides with the new data points of IRS 2010 Q1, but the IRS data does not reflect that."

Speaking to us about the quarterly format adopted by IRS, Reddy added, "Though we are appreciative of the fact that the IRS is trying to make its rolling data more current and relevant, we feel unless there are more structural changes within the methodology to bring about a true representation of publication readership, we wouldn't be able to use it effectively. We continue to receive requests for circulation break-ups within city and district limits from planners and advertisers to help them get a better understanding of our reach, inspite of them having access to the IRS figures on us."

We tried to get the agency perspective on the recently out IRS Report, Q1. On being asked about the role of IRS Report in ad planning process and how much stress a media planner gives, on this Kunal Kumar of Madison, Delhi says "It's the most important thing, as to reach the maximum target audience we need to be present on the vehicles with highest readership. When there is enough money, then we support the brand with the niche vehicles, which might not have good readership numbers. This also depends on the brands. Mass brands will purely be concentrated on the vehicles with the high readership, while luxury and lifestyle brands can be present on low readership vehicles because of environment and quality."

Kumar further adds on how the new quarterly report will help in media planning process and says "Usually the reading pattern doesn't change drastically on weekly or monthly or quarterly basis, so will not help much. But this will obviously help in case of new launches and big pattern change, incase any publication has done great advertising/ promotion or activation to increase the readership base. This will just be directional on case to case basis but do not see any major change because of quarterly report."