According to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2008 Round 1, the magazine genre is dominated by Hindi and other vernacular publications, with India Today being the only English magazine to make it to the top 10 list. In fact, five of the top 10 magazines are in Hindi language.
Hindi fortnightly Saras Salil leads in the overall magazine genre with a total readership of 98 lakh, followed by Hindi magazine Grih Shobha with a total readership of 76 lakh. Tamil weeklies Kumudam and Kungumam share the No. 3 position with a total readership of 74 lakh each. India Today, the only English magazine to make it to the top 10 list, is at No. 5 with a total readership of 69 lakh.
India Today Hindi takes the sixth slot with a total readership of 67 lakh. Malayalam fortnightly Vanitha follows with a readership of 60 lakh. Hindi monthly Meri Saheli is at No. 8 with a readership of 59 lakh. Tamil weekly Ananda Vikatan is at No. 9 with a total readership of 56 lakh, while Hindi monthly Cricket Samrat is in the tenth slot with a total readership of 52 lakh.
The Media Research Users’ Council (MRUC) has further broken up the data on the basis of the periodicity of the magazines.
The top 10 weeklies see Tamil publication Kungumam lead the chart with a total readership of 74 lakh. India Today English and India Today Hindi follow with readerships of 69 lakh and 67 lakh, respectively.
Ananda Vikatan (Tamil) has a total readership of 56 lakh; Tamil bi-weekly Junior Vikatan has a total readership of 36 lakh; Balarama Malayalam has a total readership of 35 lakh; Swati Sapari Vara Patrika (Telugu) has a total readership of 28 lakh; Malayala Manorama has a total readership of 28 lakh; Sadin (Assamese) has a total readership of 24 lakh; while English weekly Outlook takes the tenth position with a total readership of 19 lakh.
In the top 10 fortnightlies’ list, Hindi publication Saras Salil leads with a total readership of 98 lakh, followed by Vanitha (Malayalam) with a readership of 60 lakh. Champak (Hindi) is at 41 lakh, and Sarita is at 37 lakh. Tamil publication Aval Vikatan takes the fifth position with a total readership of 22 lakh. Bengali publications Sananda (21 lakh) and Anandalok (17 lakh) take the sixth and seventh slots, respectively. Hindi fortnightly Balhans follows at 16 lakh, while English magazines Femina and Business Today have a total readership of 14 lakh each.
Among the top 10 monthlies, the top four positions are taken by Hindi publications – Grih Shobha leads with a total readership of 76 lakh, followed by Meri Saheli (59 lakh), Cricket Samrat (52 lakh) and Grehlakshmi (49 lakh). English magazine Readers’ Digest is at No. 5 with a total readership of 45 lakh.
Hindi publication Pratiyogita Darpan takes the sixth slot with a total readership of 42 lakh. General Knowledge Today is at 39 lakh; Manohar Kahaniyan is at 37 lakh; Filmfare is at 35 lakh; and Competition Success Review is at 31 lakh.
