ToI No. 1 english publication, Filmfare at 5  ( April '30,2003, ET)

The Times of India leads the list of top-10 English publications in India in the latest round of the Indian Readership Survey. With a readership of 61 lakh, The Times of India enjoys a significant lead over the second and third largest publications on the list, India Today (40 lakh) and The Hindu (28 lakh).

Adding a dash of glamour to the list at number five is Filmfare with a readership of 25 lakh, followed by the only other newspaper on the list, The Hindustan Times, with 23 lakh readership. The Times of India was also the only English language paper in the list of the country’s top-10 publications at number 10.

The performance is creditable in a year when print readership has declined even as circulation figures continue to increase. Magazines have been more seriously hit than newspapers by the trend. Publications in Telugu, Bengali and Tamil are all seeing declining readership; while those that are growing include Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada. Interestingly enough, the percentage decline in readership of business dailies is lower than that of general newspapers.

The decline is largely among the age groups 12-24 and, to a lesser extent, 25-34. The percentage decline for women is high at 8% and among those not working at 7%. Also, an increase in literacy levels is not translating into greater readership. It’s felt that the dichotomy between rising circulation and declining readership is caused by the proliferation of nuclear households, where each member chooses to buy a copy of a paper, and due to promotional activities that cause spurts in circulation that are not easily sustained. Besides, studies of claimed readership v/s average issue readership show that regularity in reading is on the decline.

Another interesting trend is the phenomenally sharp rise in the popularity of FM radio, which the survey estimates is already three-and-a-half times bigger than internet. Among TV channels, Star Plus rules the airwaves with a viewership of 559 lakh, followed by Sony at 391 lakh and Zee at 333 lakh. More good news for Star Plus as it registered a 22% growth, while rivals Sony and Zee showed declines of 43% and 51% respectively for the period.