IRS 2019 Q4: Sambad continues to retain top slot in Odisha

Sambad English Bureau Published On : May 13, 2020 at 11:36 AM Updated On : May 13, 2020 at 11:58 AM

Bhubaneswar: Sambad, Odisha’s leading vernacular daily, continued to retain top slot once again in the state, IRS 2019 Q4 data revealed.

According to last quarters of Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2019 reports, the total readership of the newspaper has increased by 44,000 to 65.94 lakh in Q4 as compared to IRS 2019 Q3.

However, other leading dailies including ‘Samaj’, ‘Prameya’ and ‘Dharitri’ witnessed a sharp fall in Q4 readership survey by the IRS for the year 2019.

As per the data, the Samaj continued to retain second position with readership of 56.93 lakh and followed by Prameya and Dharitri. While the readership of the Prameya slipped to 36.21 lakh from 38.07 lakh and Dharitri has the total readership of 26.51 lakh, a decrease from 27.51 lakh.

Meanwhile, the vernacular daily Sambad continued to be placed in top position in Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Twin City among all the Odia newspapers.

As per the IRS 2010 Q4 data, the daily readership of the Sambad has surged to 1.77 lakh, while the readership of the Samaj fell to 1.09 lakh in Bhubaneswar. During the period, Sambad’s readership rose to 69,000 per day in Cuttack as against Samaj’s 60,000.

Similarly, Prameya and Dharitri slipped to third and fourth post in terms of daily readership in Twin City.

In national scenario, ‘The Times of India’ and ‘Dainik Jagaran’, ‘The Telegraph’, ‘Lokmat’, ‘The Hindustan Times’ and ‘The Hindu’ are some of the newspapers whose readership rose significantly in Q4 despite sluggish economy.

While Dainik Jagaran and Times of India top the list of the most-read Hindi and English newspapers as per Q4 of IRS 2019, the readership data by Media Research Users Council (MRUC) India revealed that the daily readership is on a slow decline.

The data shows that the Dainik Jagaran has a total readership of 68667 in Q4 against 68667 in Q3 and an average issue readership of 16872 against 17496 in Q3. The Times Of India recorded a total readership of 17344 in Q4 against 16986 in Q3. Its total average issue readership in Q4 stood at 5560 against 5821 in Q3.

Besides, Daily Thanthi, Telegraph, Lokmat, Hindustan Times and the Hindu witnessed a rise in readership even in the slow market.