The state of Maharashtra can be said to be one of a kind with the various language publications read. Apart from Marathi, Hindi and English, the state is house to seven other languages – Gujarati, Urdu, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Bengali. Of course, there is no surprise that the top publications comprise Marathi, Hindi and English languages.
Publications in Maharashtra have fared quite well as per the IRS Q2 2010 results, with 19 of the Top 30 publications seeing positive growth. Just four of the Top 15 dailies have witnessed decline, while the rest have seen marginal growth. Among the top five dailies, four are Marathi publications with The Times of India being the only English language publication. Lokmat leads in this state, followed by Daily Sakal. Pudhari and Punya Nagari are ranked No. 3 and No. 4, respectively. Both dailies have seen decline in their Average Issue Readership (AIR).
A similar trend is seen between ranks six and ten, where four publications are Marathi and two dailies have seen decline. These two dailies are English compact newspaper Mumbai Mirror with a 5.42 per cent decline and Marathi daily Navakal, which has seen a 6.88 per cent de-growth, which is also the highest decline rate among the top 15 dailies.
Ranks 11 to 15 comprise a mix of Gujarati, Marathi, English and Hindi dailies. Gujarat Samachar, which is at No. 11 and is the only Gujarati paper to feature in the Top chart, has recorded a growth of 8.72 per cent, the highest among the Top 15 dailies.
Meanwhile, magazines have taken a little more beating than the dailies, with seven of the Top 15 showing decline. Saptahik Sakal is the most read magazine, but has seen a 3.90 per cent decline in its readership. English magazines India Today and Reader’s Digest have seen decline. Reader’s Digest has recorded a de-growth of 19.05 per cent, the highest among the top 15 magazines.
Hindi magazine Meri Saheli (No. 6) and Marathi magazine Lokprabha (No. 13) have both grown by 22.22 per cent each. Lokrajya at fifth position and Chitralekha (Mar) at 15th position have recorded an average issue readership (AIR) of 129,000 and 49,000, respectively, in Q2, with no data available for the previous quarter.
For a state with so many languages read, it would be unfair to not list the highest read publications of the other languages. Among Urdu publications, Inquilab is the highest read daily with a readership of 193,000 in Q2. Malayala Manorama is the highest read Malayalam daily with an AIR of 54,000, while Vanitha, with a readership of 6,000, is the most read Malayalam magazine.
Daily Thanti is the most widely read Tamil daily with a readership of 31,000, while Ananda Vikatan is the highest read Tamil magazine in the state with a readership of 3,000. Udayavani is the highest read Kannada daily with a readership of 12,000.
Eenadu is the highest read Telugu daily with an AIR of 11,000, while Swati Sapari Vara Patrika is the most read Telugu magazine with a readership of 2,000. Ananda Bazar Patrika has a readership of 9,000 in the state, making it the highest read Bengali daily. Sananda, with an AIR of 6,000, is the most read Bengali magazine in Maharashtra.
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