Bhaskar Group is India’s No 1

The Dainik Bhaskar Group, joint promoters of DNA with the Essel Group, has become the No 1 newspaper group in the country, thanks to strong reader support. The group’s flagship Hindi daily, Dainik Bhaskar, its Gujarati daily, Divya Bhaskar, and DNA have together achieved a combined readership of 1.73 crore, making it the largest in the country, according to the 2009 Indian Readership Survey (IRS, Round 1).

The No 1 position has been reached without adding the readership of  Business Bhaskar, DB Star and Prabhat Kiran.

The other newspaper groups after Dainik Bhaskar are the Dainik Jagran Group, The Times of India and  HT Media.

Dainik Bhaskar is the undisputed leader in Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana with a readership of 23.68 lakh, much ahead of its nearest competitor, Punjab Kesari (19.16 lakh).

In Madhya Pradesh, Dainik Bhaskar is three times as big as its nearest competitor. Even the combined readership of five other leading dailies of the state is not enough to catch up with Bhaskar’s 30.59 lakh readers.

In Chhattisgarh, Dainik Bhaskar is the largest paper with 10.21 lakh readers. In Jaipur, Bhaskar is 30% ahead of its nearest competitor. Even in Ahmedabad, Divya Bhaskar is the largest paper, with a 13% lead over its nearest competitor, Gujarat Samachar.