Hindi Media

The Times of India (TOI) continues to be the leading daily of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT), followed by its foe-turned-friend, Hindustan Times (HT), with total readerships of 32.66 lakh and 32.44 lakh respectively. In fact, the gap between the two dailies has narrowed down from about 5 lakh readers in R1, 2008 to only 22,000 in the current round of IRS (R2, 2009). However, like most leading dailies in this market, both the English dailies have lost readers in the current round of IRS. While TOI has lost 1.35 lakh readers, HT is down by 86,000 readers. For TOI, it's about 4.15 lakh readers less than R1, 2008. The country's leading English daily had lost close to 3 lakh readers in the city a year ago, which it still hasn't managed to compensate for. Though it had managed to maintain a status quo by adding a marginal 4,000 readers, the current loss of readers has increased the gap. TOI's biggest loss has been in West Delhi (60,000) and South Delhi (53,00...

This news item appeared first at www.agencyfaqs.com Dhaleta Surender Kumar | afaqs! | New Delhi, May 27, 2008 April, Dainik Bhaskar launched its Shimla edition, and Amar Ujala is planning a Shimla edition in the next couple of months. Until now, Hindi newspapers reached Himachal Pradesh (HP) with editions from Dharamshala and Chandigarh. Punjab Kesari was the exception. It sent its Jalandhar edition to HP. While the Dharamshala editions served the lower regions of HP, such as Kangra, Una, Hamirpur, Chamba, Mandi and Kullu, the upper regions of Solan, Shimla, Kinnaur and Sirmaur were served by the Chandigarh editions. After Divya Himachal, Dainik Bhaskar became the first major Hindi newspaper to have a Shimla edition. According to industry sources, it has a print run of around 25,000 copies. The newspaper’s Chandigarh edition, which served the region earlier, had an average circulation of around 18,000 copies, as per ABC figures for July-December 2007. The leader in HP is Punjab Kesari,...

The Media Research Users’ Council (MRUC) has released the data for the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2008 Round 1. There aren’t any surprises in the numbers this time as well. The top 10 Hindi dailies see Dainik Jagran topping the charts again with a total readership of 566 lakh. Dainik Bhaskar follows with a total readership of 319 lakh. Amar Ujala is at No. 3 with a total readership of 296 lakh; Hindustan is on the fourth spot with a total readership of 252 lakh, and Rajasthan Patrika is at No. 5 with a total readership of 137 lakh. Punjab Kesari, with a total readership of 111 lakh, is in the sixth position, followed by Aj at No. 7 with a total readership of 74 lakh. Navbharat Times shares the eighth position with Navabharat (Mah/Chh), both having a total readership of 52 lakh. Prabhat Khabar is at No. 10 with a total readership of 50 lakh. The top 10 English dailies see The Times of India lead the charge with a total readership of 136 lakh for all its editions put together. The Hi...

Navjyoti the Ajmer based Hindi daily is said to be on the verge of joining hands with Dainik Jagran. Merely the mention of Jagran's backdoor entry into the lurcative media market of India largest state Rajasthan has set alarm bells ringing in the corridors of competitors. Rajasthan is not only unique as far as its culture and landscape is concerned but it is among the few states of the country where power sharing is a matter to be settled between two parties. In politics they are Congress and BJP and in media Rajasthan Patrika and Dainik Bhaskar nobody has been able to change or challenge this. Even after Punjab Kesari started Jaipur edition there were no murmurs heard among the competitors. However things may change in the near future for what only time can tell.