MUMBAI: Malayalam fortnightly magazine Vanitha continues to lead the list of most read magazines in the country, according to the latest Indian Readership Survey conducted by the MRUC.

The publication, however, clocked a decrease in the All India Readership (AIR) at 2.353 million in the second quarter of the calendar year 2012 as compared to 2.444 million in the first quarter.

The second place on the list continued to be occupied by Hindi monthly publication Pratiyogita Darpan with a readership of 1.918 million from 1.893 in Q1. Another Hindi monthly magazine Samanya Gyan Darshan figured on the number three spot, having also increased its AIR from 1.644 in Q1 to 1.664 in Q2.

Jumping up two places on the list, Bengali weekly Karmakshetra (Q1 AIR: 1.142 million; Q2 AIR: 1.168 million) stood at number seven in Q2, sending previous quarter‘s number seven Cricket Samrat (Q1 AIR: 1.176 million; Q2 AIR: 1.135 million) and Malayalam weekly Malayala Manorama (Q1 AIR: 1.163 million; Q2 AIR: 1.113 million) to number nine.

The pecking order of Hindi magazines remained unchanged with Patiyogita Darpan in top position followed by Samanya Darpan. Fortnightly publication Saras Salil was at number three, but saw a drop in AIR at 1.548 million in second quarter as compared to 1.601 million in Q1. Seven out of the 10 publications saw a drop in AIR for the second quarter of 2012.

Amongst the English magazines, India Today retained its top spot though its readership decreased from 1.613 million in first quarter to 1.554 million in Q2. Second spot holder General Knowledge Today saw a spike in readers, albeit marginal, from 1.086 million to 1.087 million in second quarter. Stardust jumped up one spot to occupy the seventh place with AIR at 416000. The week suffered decline in readership (Q1 AIR: 418000; Q2 AIR 397000) and thus slipped down two places to number nine.

The language magazines saw two major changes in the pecking order. Last quarter’s second spot holder Malayala Manorama swapped places with Bengali weekly Karmakshetra which held third position in the first quarter. Malayalam weekly Balaram (Q1 AIR: 787000; Q2 AIR: 738000) was bumped down to number eight by same language weekly Mathrubhumi Thozhil Vartha (Q1 AIR: 735000; Q2 AIR: 782000) which ranked at number seven in the second quarter.