Thursday, June 09, 2005

Hindi and other Indian languages readership growing fast


Dainik Jagran with a readership of 21.12 million has toppled Dainik Bhaskar to be the most read newspaper in the country, according to the National Readership Study (NRS) 2005. Dainik Bhaskar has a readership of 17.37 million, followed by Eenadu (11.34 million).

Hindustan, Amar Ujala, Daily Thanti, Lokmat, Rajasthan Patrika, Times of India and Anand Bazar Patrika were the others that figured in the Top 10 list.

Dainik Jagran had an urban readership of 10.46 million, followed by Dainik Bhaskar (9.70 million). Third in line was Times of India with a readership of 7.29 million. Amar Ujala, Daily Thanti, Lokmat, Gujarat Samachar, Anand Bazar Patrika, Hindustan and Eenadu were the others who joined the Top 10 list.

A noteworthy point here is that Dainik Jagran, which is ruling the roost at present, has benefited from the drastically changing environment in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand where the literacy rate has grown the most when compared to the other parts of the country. Almost 2.7 million people in urban UP and 8.4 million people in rural UP can read and understand Hindi.