India's daily readership of online news and information jumps 34%

NEW DELHI, INDIA: comScore, Inc, a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a report highlighting online news readership in India based on data from its comScore Media Metrix service.

1 Oct 2013

The report showed that there has been significant growth in daily readership of news and information content in the past year, with an increase of 34% to 9.4 million average daily visitors to the category.

comScore News/Information Properties in India August 2012-2013 Total India - Home and Work Computers (Source: comScore Media Metrix)

	August 2012	August 2013	% Change
Total Unique Visitors (000)	40,044	45,902	15%
Total Visits (000)	259,686	364,592	40%
Average Daily Visitors (000)	7,042	9,402	34%
Average Minutes per Visitor	31.6	41.6	31%
Total Unique Visitors (000)	40,044	45,902	15%

The Times of India leads online news ranking

The Times of India continues to be the clear leader in the news category, maintaining its number 1 position since last year with 12.7 million unique visitors in August. India.com Sites showed 25% growth breaking into the Top 10 for the first time with more than 7.1 million unique visitors. In addition to those two properties, 16 of the top 20 news properties are currently local news publishers.

comScore Top 20 News/Information Properties in India August 2013 Total India - Home and Work Computers (Source: comScore Media Metrix)

Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)	Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)

1	The Times of India	12,715	11	The Hindu Group	4,201
2	Yahoo!-ABC News Network	10,721	12	IBN Live	4,175
3	HT Media Ltd	8,219	13	The Indian Express Group	3,492
4	India Today Group	7,676	14	Bhaskar.com	2,537
5	India.com Sites	7,188	15	CNN Network	2,171
6	About	7,044	16	BBC	2,113
7	Jagran Sites	6,312	17	Sify News And Information	2,034
8	NDTV	6,258	18	HPMG News	1,965
9	OneIndia.com Sites	6,182	19	Navbharat Times	1,862
10	The Economic Times	4,415	20	FirstPost.com	1,832

Data also suggests reader engagement for the news category has spiked within the past year, with users spending on average 31% more time on news sites at 41.6 minutes per visitor. DivyaBhaskar.co.in and Bhaskar.com demonstrated especially strong engagement at 100.3 minutes and 62.1 minutes, respectively. Other niche news sites with more modestly-sized audiences - including Jagbani.com, PunjabKesari.in, and Navbharat Times - also generated high engagement with a higher number of page views per visitor than the category average of 48.

Several Indian news properties attract significant audiences from abroad

Continuing a past trend, many of the top Indian News sites see a significant amount of traffic from abroad. FirstPost.com generated the highest share of its audience from abroad at 51.3%, followed by Manorma Sites at 45%. The Times of India, as the most prominent news brand, also successfully extends its audience into other markets with 37.8% of its audience coming from abroad. NDTV, India.com Sites, and The Indian Express Group also have more than 30% of their respective audiences coming from outside of India.

Share of Audience from Abroad Among Top News/Information Properties in India* August 2013 vs. August 2012 Total India - Home and Work Computers (Source: comScore Media Metrix)

Property	Unique Visitors (000) from Outside India	Unique Visitors (000) from India	% of Audience From Abroad
FirstPost.com	1,932	1,832	51%
Manorama Sites	902	1,089	45%
The Times of India	7,736	12,715	38%
NDTV	3,550	6,258	36%
India.com Sites	3,584	7,188	33%
The Indian Express Group	1,606	3,492	32%
The Hindu Group	1,741	4,201	29%