Hindustan Times is Delhi, NCR’s top pick

Hindustan Times has once again come out as the undisputed leader in Delhi and the national capital region (NCR) area in the latest round of the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) for the first quarter (Q1) of 2011. The independent survey by the Media Research Users Council (MRUC) — a registered not-for-profit body of members drawn from major advertisers, advertising agencies, publishers, broadcast and other media — showed that 2.26 million readers in the NCR region pick up HT every morning, nearly 100,000 more than its nearest competitor, The Times of India.

In the four NCR areas of Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad, HT’s readership has grown by a robust 14%, driven by the launch of separate editions in Gurgaon and Noida.

In Delhi as a single market, HT continues to remain on top, retaining its undisputed leadership position in the national capital.
With 1.95 million daily readers (average issue readership, or AIR, as per industry terminology) and 2.86 million total readers (total readership or TR, which is the sum of daily and casual readership), it is far ahead of TOI which had an AIR of 1.89 million and TR of 2.76 million, respectively.

In Mumbai, Hindustan Times is the second largest English broadsheet with 688,000 readers. It has recorded growth in 10 out of the last 11 IRS rounds and is the fastest-growing English daily in the financial capital having added 75,000 readers over the previous round.

Overall, Hindustan Times continues to be the second-largest English daily in the country with 3.69 million readers. It is also the fastest-growing among the all English dailies having added nearly 100,000 readers over the previous round of IRS.

Mint, HT Media’s business newspaper, has consolidated its No.2 position with 222,000 daily readers, a growth of more than 12% over the previous round.
Hindustan, the group’s Hindi daily, continues to be the second-largest daily in the country with a total readership of 36.6 million, increasing its lead over Dainik Bhaskar, which has a readership of 33.4 million.

Hindustan remains the only newspaper to consistently register a readership growth in the last eight rounds of IRS.