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IRS Q4 2010: Top 10 Dailies in West Bengal

The Telegraph overtakes Sangbad Pratidin to become third largest read daily of the state.

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IRS Q4 2010: Top 10 Dailies in West Bengal

The Telegraph overtakes Sangbad Pratidin to become third largest read daily of the state.

Rajat Arora | Delhi | March 15, 2011

publive-imageThe fourth quarter of IRS 2010 has brought no surprises for the top 10 dailies in the state where 7 out of top 10 have registered decline.

No.1 Bangla daily 'Anand Bazar Patrika' has registered loss in the second consecutive quarter. The largest read Bangla daily has recorded an AIR of 61.06 lakh in IRS Q4 2010 as compared to 62.04 lakh in the previous quarter. The daily had lost 2,62,000 readers in IRS Q3 2010 but added 18,000 readers in Q2. Thus, ABP has lost 3.42 lakh readers this year.

Bangla Daily 'Bartaman' has registered a marginal dip in its AIR this quarter. The No.2 daily in the state has lost around 26,000 readers to take its AIR at 30.16 lakh in IRS Q4 2010 as compared to 30.42 lakh in last survey. Bartaman had added 2.31 lakh readers in Q3 and 1.62 lakh readers in Q2. Thus, the overall growth of the daily in the state has been around 14% over the year.

publive-imageThere has been a major change at No.3 position where 'The Telegraph' has overtaken Sandbad Pratidin. Growing steadily, the English newspaper of ABP group has registered an AIR of 10.61 lakh in IRS Q4 2010 as compared to 10.23 lakh in the previous quarter. The newspaper has grown by 7.7% over the year.

Now at No.4, 'Sangbad Pratidin' has also seen a decline of 3.2% by losing 33,000 readers in the fourth quarter of IRS 2010. Its AIR now stands at 10.06 lakh as compared to 10.39 lakh in IRS Q3 2010.

'Ganashakti' remains the fifth largest read daily in the state despite losing more than 22% readers since the first quarter findings. By losing 82,000 readers, its AIR stands at 7.79 lakh in IRS Q4 2010 as compared to 8.61 lakh in the last quarter.

At No.6 is 'Aajkal'. The paper has also lost readers and now has AIR of 6.68 lakh. It had recorded AIR of 7.24 lakh the previous quarter.

Like other states, 'The Times of India' has added more readers in West Bengal also. The English daily is at 7th spot with AIR of 6.60 lakh in IRS Q4 2010 as compared to 6.39 lakh in previous quarter.

'Uttar Banga Sambad' has maintained its position at No.8 acquired from Sanmarg in the third quarter, though the newspaper has registered a marginal decline. Its current AIR stands at 5.52 lakh in IRS Q4 2010 as compared to 5.74 lakh in the previous quarter. The daily has grown by 11% over the year and added 55,000 readers in 2010.

At No 9 is 'Sanmarg' with 5.01 lakh readers in IRS Q4 2010 as compared to 4.99 lakh in the previous quarter. The paper has grown by 10% during the year.

'Sambad' holds the 10th spot in the state with 2.57 lakh readers as per the average issue readership data release in the third quarter of IRS 2010. The daily has registered 17.4% of decline. On annual basis, Sambad has declined by 9.2%.

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About methodology

Average Issue Readership (AIR) of a publication is defined as the number of readers of that publication who have claimed to have last read it within its periodicity – i.e. last read a daily yesterday, a weekly within the last week, a monthly within the last month, etc.

This measure is considered to be a more relevant measure of 'real' or 'regular' readership, especially for newspapers, most of which have been read / 'consumed' as matter of daily habit. Conventionally, media planners even calculate & compare cost-benefits of dailies based on the AIR figure. And hence it is perhaps most relevant to study readership trends as well in terms of AIR.

Rajat.Arora@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

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