Low readership figures continue to haunt the magazines genre. Not just the English magazines, vernacular magazines too suffered a decline. The only ones that have managed to register some growth are Tamil fortnightlies (7 per cent) and monthlies (26 per cent) as well as Oriya weeklies (47 per cent).
English magazines continue to lose readers
Among the English magazines, India Today remains at the top of the chart even as its readership has dipped 9 per cent from 2,636,000 to 2,402,000. Reader’s Digest and General Knowledge Today take the second and the third positions, respectively. From the India Today stable, Reader’s Digest, too, sees a 9 per cent drop in readership to 1,594,000. So is the case with General Knowledge Today, which has dropped 16 per cent from 1,610,000 to 1,350,000.
Competition Success Review is at No. 4 with a readership of 899,000, followed by Filmfare at 858,000 and Outlook with 665,000. Wisdom, Stardust, Diamond Cricket Today and The Week have all registered decline in readership. Some known English language magazines did not even make it to the top 10 list – including Femina, Women’s Era, Cosmopolitan, and Elle, among others.
The only magazine to have shown a growth in readership is Showtime, a growth of 14 per cent. However, the high growth percentage is due to the fact that the base of publication is not too large.
Language periodicals too show decline
A language wise analysis also shows a continuous decline in readership. Hindi weeklies have dipped 11 per cent; fortnightlies by 10 per cent, monthlies by 4 per cent, and quarterlies by 10 per cent.
Similarly, languages like Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Telugu publications, too, have witnessed a decline in readership. The Bengali weeklies and fortnightlies have dropped 1 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively, while Bengali monthlies have dropped 10 per cent.
Gujarati weeklies have witnessed a steep drop of 33 per cent, while monthlies have dipped 4 per cent. Kannada weeklies have dipped 11 per cent, while monthlies have dropped 22 per cent. Malayalam weeklies, fortnightlies and monthlies have also registered drops of 8 per cent, 9 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively.
The story was no different for Marathi magazines, while the weeklies dropped by 15 per cent, fortnightlies and monthlies dropped by 21 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively.
Bucking the trend were the Oriya weeklies, which jumped by 47 per cent, and Tamil fortnightlies and monthlies, which went up by 7 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively.
Also read:
IRS 2008 R1: Dainik Jagran continues the lead in Hindi dailies; TOI leads English
IRS 2008 R1: No surprises in the language wise leaders as well
IRS 2008 R1: Saras Salil continues its lead in the overall magazine genre
