The data for IRS 2014 was issued in March 2015 based on 2,38,000 respondents across 92 districts and 98 district clusters. The report was released in the first week of April 2016. The Indian Readership Survey 2014 shows that even in the age of internet and mobile, the readership of physical dailies and magazines is still on the rise. Although, internet as a news consumption medium is showing rapid growth, the physical paper still remains popular with Indians.
According to the survey, Indian consumers are steadily becoming more affluent. The lower strata of the society is decreasing, and consumers are moving up on the affluence scale. In 2014, about 24% Indian consumers owned a two-wheeler and 22% owned a refrigerator. Consumers owning a PC/laptop (9%) and car (5%) has also seen a rise.
Top publications/dailies in IndiaÂ
Hindi remains the most popular language for physical publications and Dainik Jagran tops the chart with a readership of over 16.6 million. Hindustan (14.7 million) and Dainik Bhaskar (13.8 million) round off the top three publications in India.
Malayala Manorama, the Malayalam daily has a readership of 8.8 million, while Times of India, the English daily has a readership of 7.6 million. It is interesting to note that except Mathrubhumi, which has a slight dip in its readership, all other publications have seen good growth in the number of readers.
Top language dailiesÂ
Among top local language dailies (excluding Hindi and English), Malayala Manorama has the highest readership for Malayalam, Daily Thanthi for Tamil, Lokmat for Marathi, Anandabazar Patrika for Bengali, Eenadu for Telugu and Gujarat Samachar for Gujarati. Here is the list of top 10 language dailies in India.
Top English dailiesÂ
The Times of India by all counts is not only the most read English daily in India, but also in the world. With a readership of close to 7.6 million, they are more than double of US Today, which has a circulation of close to 3.5 million, also the most circulated newspaper in America. Hindustan Times, with 4.5 million readership is the second most circulated English newspaper in India followed by The Hindu at 1.6 million.
Here too, out of the Top 10 English dailies, except for Deccan Herald, all others have been able to post positive growth. The universal growth in readership of physical newspapers shows that even with the onslaught of internet and mobile devices, people still prefer reading real physical newspapers.
Top magazinesÂ
Even when it comes to magazines, Hindi is the most preferred language, with six out of top 10 magazines being in Hindi. Vanitha, a fortnightly Malayalam magazine tops the list with a readership of 2.8 million. India Today is the most read English weekly magazine with a readership of 1.63 million.
