The IRS reported a growth in the number of absolute readers across regional languages too. Compared to the 2017 numbers of IRS, in Q1 2019, one crore more readers read Hindi dailies. The number of readers have climbed up from 17.6 crore in 2017 to 18.6 crore in Q1 2019, however, the penetration remains the same at 17%.

The Q1 2019 data show an increase of 90 lakh individual readers when it comes to magazines. In 2017, the total readership of magazines as per periodicity was 7.8 crore while in Q1 2019 the number climbed up to 8.7 crore.

India Today topped the list of most read magazine. The English magazine's total readership in Q1 2019 is reported to be 91.52 lakh which went up from 79.92 lakh in 2017. The Hindi version of the same publication secured second slot with a total readership of 77.12 lakh followed by Samanya Gyan Darpan with 74.95 lakh readership.

Dainik Jagran retains the pole position in the list of top 20 dailies with a total readership (in last one month Q1 2019) 7.36 crore up from 7.03 crore. Dainik Bhaskar toppled Amar Ujala to secure the second berth with a total readership of 5.14 crore up from 4.5 crore.

The Times of India remains the leaders in the list of top 10 English dailies with a total readership of 1.52 crore up (in last one month Q1 2019) from 1.30 crore in 2017. The Hindu secured the second slot in the list with a readership of 62.26 lakh up from 53 lakh in 2017. The IRS data released by MRUC does not include Hindustan Times. It said the data is not reported as it is review is still pending.

Daily Thanthi is the top regional daily newspaper in the country as per the IRS. With a total readership of 2.40 crore, the Tamil newspaper stays strong in the top slot followed by Lokmat with a readership of 1.96 crore. Sakaal climbed up a spot to ninth position in the list (compared to 2017 IRS) with 1.18 crore readership. It swapped slot with Dinamalar which fetched a total readership of 1.17 crore.

(Courtesy agencies)