(Michael P. Smith) Congratulations to Nihar Kothari and his family who run Rajasthan Patrika in India. In the latest reporting period, Patrika entered the ranks of the top 10 dailies in circulation in India. Nihar attended the Media Management Center’s Advanced Executive Programs in 2005 and 2006.

In the official Indian Readership Study, Rajasthan Patrika surprised researchers by entering the top 10 at No. 9 in the first round (quarter) of 2007. Nationally in India, newspapers saw the second straight round of readership decline among the largest newspapers. The largest newspapers in India are dialect (or what they call language) newspapers. Rajasthan Patrika, written in Hindi, knocked the largest English language newspaper, the Times of India, out of the top 10. A chart of the largest language newspapers is below.

The move up the ladder will not surprise Nihar's AEP classmates. Rajasthan Patrika has embraced community involvement and social purpose as key strategies. It is published from Jaipur other major cities in Indian state of Rajasthan. Poverty and self-help programs advocated by the newspaper have helped build the brand of the newspaper locally. One program that received global attention was a campaign in which students were asked to bring "a handful of grain" to the newspaper office during a drought that caused great suffering. The campaign energized the students who overwhelmed the newspapers' offices with their contributions. In the Rajasthan state, "own the local market," as advocated in AEP, means enabling readers to help others.

Here are the top 10 average issue readership newspapers, as reported by the Indian Readership Survey for the first part of 2007. (Circulation is reported in lakhs. One lakh is equal to 100,000.) I have translated here:

Top 10 Publications (000s)
Dainik Jagran 17,114
Dainik Bhaskar 12,514
Hindustan 9,052
Malayala Manorama 8,837
Daily Thanthi 8,351
Amar Ujala 8,255
Eenadu 7,233
Mathrubhumi 6,961
Rajasthan Patrika 6,946
Lokmat 6,874