(5 April 2006 5:00 pm)

MUMBAI: The top three dailies may have retained their leadership positions but couldn't prevent a marginal erosion in their readership base.

Hindi daily Dainik Jagran continued to be the most read daily in the country with a readership base of 19.07 million (19.173 million), according to IRS 2006 Round I survey.

Dainik Bhaskar and Daily Thanthi occupied the second and third slots with readership of 14.57 million (15.1 million) and 10.23 million (10.56 million) respectively. Amar Ujala continues at the fourth position with 9.8 million readers.

There has been some reshuffle at the lower half where Malayala Manorama has slipped from number five position to number six position and Hindustan has moved up a place to occupy the fifth rank. Lokmat, Eenadu, Mathrubhumi and Times of India fit in seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th rank with 8107 (000'), 7944 (000'), 7647 (000') and 7084 (000') readers respectively. Times of India is the only English publication to find a spot amongst the top 10 publications.

Top ten publications

Saras Salil leads the Magazines garnering a total readership of 7.36 million, followed by Kungumam at 3.76 million and Vanitha at number three positions with 3.5 million readers. Few reshuffles at lower ranks where Grihashobha has moved to number fifth position from the sixth position, but again in terms of number of readers there has been some drop.