IRS woes

The Indian Readership Survey seems to give rise to an annual gnashing of publishers' teeth. As elsewhere in the world, these reports seem to have a high capacity to generate anxiety and upset. We suspect that this year will be no different.

Exchange4media.com reports that "The story is not too happy for English business publications ... Most players have registered a decline in readership, as was seen in the previous rounds of IRS". The Economic Times maintains its lead among the business newspapers while Business Today is the magazine with the highest readership.

The Economic Times saw a 4% decline to 743,000 the report says while Business Today fell 14% to 416,000. The number two magazine, Business India, was down a similar amount (13%) at 291,000.

It's not all bad news though and the article reports that "Outlook Money and Business & Economy are the only two business magazines among the top 10 that have managed to buck the decline trend. Outlook Money’s readership has gone up to 122,000 from 111,000, while Business & Economy has a readership of 93,000, up from 90,000".