The Times of India remains India’s most widely read English newspaper with a readership that exceeds the combined readership of its three closest competitors, the Hindustan Times, Hindu and Telegraph, according to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) for the last quarter of 2012.

The survey found that TOI’s average issue readership of over 7.6 million dwarfed HT’s 3.8 million, Hindu’s 2.2 million and Telegraph’s 1.3 million. The newspaper has maintained this dominant position by retaining leadership of key markets and by closing the gap with the leader in others.

In India’s eight largest cities, the only ones with populations of over 5 million each, TOI had a combined readership of over 5.2 million as measured by the IRS. The corresponding numbers for HT (2.7 million) and Hindu (0.8 million), mean that TOI’s readership is almost 50% more than their combined tally.

In Mumbai, TOI was about twice as large as its nearest competitor with a readership of 16 lakh compared to HT’s 8.2 lakh. TOI’s group publication Mumbai Mirror was a close third with 8.1 lakh.

In Bangalore, TOI’s readership of 5.3 lakh was more than two-and-a-half times second-placed Deccan Herald’s 2 lakh while Bangalore Mirror was a close third at 1.6 lakh. In Ahmedabad, TOI’s 1.2 lakh readers and Ahmedabad Mirror’s 58,000 put them in a different league from DNA ’s 20,000.

In Pune too, TOI’s dominance has only increased with a readership of 2.2 lakh against DNA’s 66,000. Pune Mirror was a close third with 54,000 readers. In Jaipur, with 94,000 readers and growing according to the IRS, TOI is more than thrice as large as its closest competitor, DNA.

In Lucknow, TOI’s overwhelming dominance remains intact with 1.2 lakh readers compared to 39,000 for HT. Close by, in Kanpur, there was a similar story with TOI’s 33,000 readers putting it miles ahead of HT’s 11,000. In Patna too, TOI’s 70,000 readers are almost as much as HT’s 39,000, Hindu’s 22,000 and Telegraph’s 10,000 put together.

In other cities like Bhubaneshwar, Indore, Varanasi, Surat, Baroda, Vadodara, Nashik, Mangalore and Kolhapur, TOI remains by far the biggest paper, in many cases facing virtually no competition.

Among the cities where TOI is not currently the leader, it has closed the gap with Deccan Chronicle in Hyderabad by23,000 while widening the gap with third placed Hindu by 7,000. In Kolkata too, TOI gained 7,000 readers compared to the previous quarter while the Telegraph lost 3,000. Similarly in Chennai, the TOI gained 1,000 readers in a period in which the Hindu lost 11,000.

