Contrary to the hype with which it surrounds itself, The Times of India is far from being India's most popular newspaper. That honour goes to Hindi language stalwart Dainik Jagran, which continues to be India's most read newspaper across all languages.

In fact the Times has been losing readership, along with five of the top 10 English dailies - The Hindu, Deccan Chronicle, The Economic Times and DNA. On the other hand, the readership of Hindustan Times, The New Indian Express, Mid-Day and Mumbai Mirror has gone up, according to the latest Indian Readership Survey (IRS) data.

The survey is the first edition of IRS' quarterly data on the Indian print media industry, released jointly by MRUC and Hansa Research Pvt Ltd. IRS used to publish a bi-annual data till now.

The Times of India has long been fond of front-paging the slightest gain in readership with banner headlines. To be fair, Hindustan Times and others have been quick to follow this lead. But it will be interesting to see how Times plays this one.

Dainik Jagran ranks No 1 among the dailies with a 'total readership' (TR) of 54,254,000. However it too has lost readership - in the last round it had gained around 2,00,000 readers, but in this round it has lost around 5,00,000 readers.

Today, Dainik Jagran has 37 editions across 11 states. Run by the Jagran Prakashan Ltd, the company's business spans across newspapers, internet, magazines and mobile value added services.

Dainik Bhaskar comes second with a readership of 33,432,000. Established by the D B Corp Ltd, the newspaper is present in nine states with 27 editions.

Hindustan Times comes in third with a readership of 29,411,000. Run by Hindustan Media Ventures Ltd, it is a subsidiary of HT Media Ltd. HT Media started in 1924 when its flagship newspaper, Hindustan Times, was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi.

Amar Ujala stands at the fourth position with a readership of 28,720,000. Amar Ujala was launched on April 18, 1948 from Agra. It is a leading newspaper in Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi.

The Marathi daily Lokmat comes at the fifth position with a readership of 23,276,000. Lokmat is also the highest read regional daily.

Among English papers, Hindustan Times has emerged the largest paper in Delhi in terms of readership between January and March. HT is also the fastest growing English daily in India, adding 120,000 readers in the first three months of 2010.

In Delhi, HT has increased its total readership to 3.23 million and average issue readership (AIR) to 2.20 million. The Times of India, published by Bennett, Coleman and Co Ltd (BCCL), had comparable numbers of 3.20 million and 2.19 million.

In Mumbai, The Times lost about 10,000 readers to reach an AIR of 1.45 million, and the Daily News and Analysis (DNA) around 73,000 to 683,000. HT's readership grew in the Mumbai market to 538,000 from 503,000.

HT's national AIR grew from about 3.35 million in 2009 to 3.47 million in 2010. For TOI, national AIR declined from 7.14 million in 2009 to 7.04 million.

Media buyers typically make decisions on the basis of AIR, which only counts the number of people who read a paper the day before they were surveyed (or the week or fortnight before for magazines).

Regional publications such as Eenadu, Vaartha and the Daily Thanthi have lost readers. As for business papers, several publications, including Mint, have lost readership.

Mint's average issue readership declined marginally to 158,000 readers from 159,000 in 2009, but it held on to its No 2 position in the category as the Business Standard's readership dipped from 148,000 to 131,000.

The Economic Times, also published by BCCL, gained 3,000 readers to reach an AIR of 760,000. The readership of The Hindu Business Line remained steady at 124,000 readers.

Hindi daily Hindustan consolidated its position as the third largest national daily and grew its readership by 6 per cent, the fastest for a Hindi daily. It added 578,000, driving its readership to 9.91 million AIR.

Hindustan Media Ventures Ltd, which publishes Hindustan and magazines Nandan and Kadambini, has crossed the 30-million mark in terms of total readership.