IRS 2019 Q1: The Times of India readership soars by 17%

There are seven English general interest broadsheet dailies, including TOI, in the top 10 (of the remaining three, two are tabloids and one is a business paper), according to the latest findings of the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) by Media Research Users Council (MRUC) released on 26 April 2019.

TOI is bigger, by a comfortable margin, than the other six general broadsheets put together — The Hindu, The Indian Express, The New Indian Express, The Tribune, The Telegraph and The Deccan Chronicle add up to 14.6 million compared to TOI’s 15.2 million. The IRS findings do not include data for Hindustan Times, which was not reported pending review.

TOI’s average issue readership (AIR) grew in double digits by 11.5% to about 56.5 lakh. While total readership measures readership in the past month, AIR looks at readership in the last 24 hours.

Total readership of TOI’s sister publications, The Economic Times (ET) at 37 lakh and Mumbai Mirror at nearly 22 lakh, also grew by 19% each during the period. In terms of AIR, Mumbai Mirror grew by 21%, taking its total readership to 8 lakh from 6.6 lakh, while ET grew by about 5% to 9.8 lakh. The group's Kannada newspaper, Vijay Karnataka, saw a 14.5% surge in total readership to 79.1 lakh.

(Courtesy agencies)