The Indian Readership Survey (IRS) is the largest continuous readership research study in the world with an annual sample size exceeding 2.56 lakh (256,000) respondents. IRS collects a comprehensive range of demographic information and does extensive coverage and provides information based on study. This survey is conducted by MRUC (Media Research Users Council) and RSCI (Readership Studies Council of India). Recent survey on 2017 proved that domestic newspaper market continued to defy global trends i.e. while globally readership for print media is on declining trend, India has different trend, recording healthy growth numbers and have added as many as 11.2 crore new readers during the past four years.

Another important revelation is – contrary to popular belief that English dailies have more readership, it is actually Hindi and regional language papers that rule the roost. In fact, there is not a single English daily in the top 10 list. Among top 10 dailies are the regional language papers- Daily Thanthi (5th, Tamil), Lokmat (6th, Marathi ), Malayala Manorama(8th) and the Eenadu (9th). Hindi paper Dainik Jagran has been the number one daily since sevral years. It now tops the list with 7,03,77,000 readers. Times of India comes at a distant 11th slot with a total readership of 1,30,47,000.

Among Telugu dailies Eenadu retains its numer uno position.

1. Dainik Jagran leads the readership with 7,03,77,000
2. Hindustan at 2nd place with 5,23,97000.
3. The Amar Ujala at 3rd place with 4,60,94,000
4. Dainik Bhaskar at 4th place with 4,51,05,000
5. Tamil paper Daily Thanthi 5th slot with 2,31,49,000.
6. Marathi daily Lokmat at 6th place with 1,80,66,000
7. Rajasthan Patrika at 7th with a total readership of 1,63,26,000
8. Malayala Manorama at 8th with a total readership of 1,59,99,000.
9. Telugu daily Eenadu is at the 9th spot with 1,58,48,000
10. Prabhat Khabar occupies the 10th position with a total readership of 1,34,92,000.
11. English genre market leader Times of India comes at a distant 11th spot with a total readership of 1,30,47,000.

However, around a decade back, if one remembers, Eenadu used to be at 3rd place most of the times and Dainik Jagaran and Dainik Bhaskar used to occupy 1st and 2nd place. It is surprising to see Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam and Rajasthan dailies surpassing Eenadu. Probably arrival of Sakshi and revival of Andhrajyothy impacted Eenadu’s readership. But among Telugu papers, no other daily is even closer to Eenadu. While Eenadu is at 1.58 crore readership, Sakshi has 94 lakhs, Andhrajyothy has 63 lakhs, Namasthe Telangana has 32 lakhs. If we consider only Telangana state, Eenadu has 70 lakhs readership, Sakshi has 35 lakhs, AJ has 23.5 and Namaste Telangana has 31.5 lakhs. This survey is about readership of printed papers only. Online readership is separate and not considered for this study. In that arena too, it seems Eenadu is lagging .(https://www.telugu360.com/te/andhra-jyothi-crossed-to-eenadu-in-alexa-rankings/).