IRS 2011, Q4: Marathi dailies are the biggest gainers among top language dailies

Marathi newspapers, Daily Sakal and Lokmat, are the biggest gainers in the list of top 10 language dailies, this quarter.

As per the latest IRS, Marathi dailies emerged as the biggest gainers in the list of top 10 language dailies. Daily Sakal has registered the maximum gain in average issue readership (AIR) this quarter, an increase of 1.27 lakh readers. This is followed by another Marathi newspaper, Lokmat, which has gained 1.24 lakh average readers per issue. Lokmat had undergone a revamp in May, 2011. It's a rebounce for the Marathi daily in this quarter as it lost 1.57 lakh readers in IRS 2011, Q3.

Daily Sakal claims an AIR of 44 lakh, while Lokmat has recorded an AIR of 75.62 lakh.

The next biggest gainer among regional language dailies is Sakshi, which has grown by 84,000 readers, taking its AIR to 53.03 lakh, which is about 6.88 lakh readers less than Eenadu.

Tamil newspaper Daily Thanthi has witnessed a gain of 56,000 average issue readers in this quarter. The AIR of the newspaper stands at 75.03 lakh. The Malayalam newspaper Mathrubhumi has added another 36,000 readers in Q4, 2011, taking its AIR to 66.66 lakh.

The Malayalam daily Malayala Manorama has recorded a growth of 25,000 average issue readers in the latest quarter of IRS, with an AIR of 99.37 lakh.

However, it had lost around 50,000 readers in IRS 2011, Q3 as per AIR figures.

Among the biggest losers is Eenadu, which lost 1.1 lakh readers. Its AIR in Q4, 2011 is 59.91 lakh. The next among losers is the Bengali newspaper, Anandabazar Patrika - which has registered a loss of about 50,000 average readers per issue in the latest quarter. Anandabazar Patrika has an AIR of 60.49 lakh in the current quarter (IRS 2011, Q4).

The daily from the stable of Sun Networks, Dinakaran, has lost 26,000 average issue readers in this quarter. The Tamil publication has an AIR of 52.27 lakh.

Meanwhile, Gujarat Samachar has lost around 17,000 readers.

(Total readership includes any reader who has read any of the last six issues; whereas average issue readership includes only readers who have read the last issue.)