Even as Indian Readership Survey has been indicating decline in readership for most of the magazines in various markets and languages, the business magazine genre has continued to witness growth in AIR (Average Issue Readership) numbers in 2010. However, except a few, performance of business newspapers has declined in the Q4 results of IRS.
Decline for English business broadsheets
In the previous quarter (Q3 2010) of IRS, the English editions of Economic Times and Business Standard had seen growth in readership. However, the two leading business broadsheets could not maintain that performance in Q4. While ET has seen a marginal decline of 0.13 per cent in readership in Q4, Business Standard has seen a negative growth of 8.13 per cent and is placed third among business broadsheets.
On the other hand, compact newspaper Mint has maintained growth in its readership in Q4. While in Q3 results, Mint had witnessed a growth of 7.83 per cent (as compared to Q2 results), in Q4 the paper has done better with a double digit growth of 11.17 per cent.
Mixed results were seen for the Hindi business dailies. The Hindi edition of Business Standard has seen hike in readership with a growth of 19.30 per cent as against the Q3 results of IRS. However, Hindi business newspaper Business Bhaskar has seen a decline of 9.52 per cent, registering an AIR of 38,000 in Q4.
Business magazines upbeat
In Q1 and Q3 results of IRS, only two out of the six English business magazines had shown decline, thus making the picture not-so-grim for the magazines. And now, there is much to cheer for business magazines in Q4. Barring Outlook Money, all five business dailies (which are registered with IRS) have seen hike in AIR numbers as against the Q3 results of IRS 2010.
With an AIR of 3.70 lakh, Business Today is the most read business magazine of the country as per the Indian Readership Survey. Following that, with AIR of 2.16 lakh, Business India is ranked second among the most read business magazines. Outlook Business and Businessworld occupy the third and fourth positions with AIR of 1.95 lakh and 1.83 lakh, respectively. Business & Economy has witnessed a growth of 9.46 per cent in Q4 as compared to Q3 results of IRS.
Outlook Money is the only business magazine that has witnessed decline in AIR at 8.80 per cent as compared to Q3 results. In the Q3, Outlook Money had recorded positive growth of 8.70 per cent (as against the Q2 results of IRS).
