Dainik Jagran vs Dainik Bhaskar vs Amar Ujala vs Hindustan: Choosing a Hindi Daily for Inserts

The Times of India vs Hindustan Times vs regional papers guide covers the English mastheads. This one is for the advertiser whose market is the Hindi belt, where the real choice is between four large Hindi dailies that are each strong somewhere and weak somewhere else.

Which Hindi newspaper has the most readers?

On readership, Dainik Jagran. The Indian Readership Survey 2019 Q4, published by the Media Research Users Council, recorded these total readership figures:

All four sit far above the largest English daily. MRUC has not published a full survey since IRS 2019, so these remain the most recent comparable readership numbers. Treat them as a ranking, not a live count, and read our guide on how to verify newspaper reach with ABC and IRS before trusting any newer “readers” figure in a media kit.

Why does ABC rank Dainik Bhaskar first if Jagran has more readers?

Because the Audit Bureau of Circulations counts copies sold and distributed, while IRS estimates people reading. A title with more readers per copy, or with more of its reading happening in shared and rural copies, can lead on readership and trail on circulation.

Dainik Bhaskar has topped ABC’s Hindi circulation rankings for years. Trade coverage of ABC’s July to December 2025 audit put Bhaskar at roughly 30.5 lakh copies and Dainik Jagran at roughly 23.3 lakh. For an insert buyer, circulation is the more useful of the two numbers, because every insert goes into a physical copy. But only the edition-level figure for your city matters, and that is what you should ask to see.

Where is each Hindi daily strongest?

Broadly, each title grew out of a home region, and that region is still where its vendor rounds are densest. This is the pattern we see when building media plans, not a ranking for every district, so always confirm the edition before booking.

• Dainik Jagran is the default in much of Uttar Pradesh, including Lucknow, Kanpur and Varanasi, and is strong in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and parts of Delhi NCR, Haryana and Punjab. Jagran Prakashan also publishes Naidunia in Madhya Pradesh.
• Dainik Bhaskar leads in Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal and Indore), Chhattisgarh, much of Rajasthan, Haryana and Chandigarh, and has been growing in Bihar. DB Corp also publishes Divya Bhaskar in Gujarati and Divya Marathi.
• Amar Ujala is the strongest Hindi title in large parts of western UP, such as Meerut, Agra and the Bareilly belt, and in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
• Hindustan is a leading title in Bihar and Jharkhand, including Patna and Ranchi, and competes hard with Jagran in central and eastern UP.

Two other names often decide a plan. Rajasthan Patrika (Patrika in MP and Chhattisgarh) is Bhaskar’s main rival in Jaipur, Indore and Bhopal, and Prabhat Khabar matters in Jharkhand and Bihar. Our city pages for Lucknow, Jaipur and Patna list the titles we book in each.

Does the choice of Hindi daily change the insertion price?

No. Our rates are the same whichever masthead carries the flyer: A2 from ₹2.00, A4 from ₹1.50 and A5 from ₹1.20 per copy, all-inclusive of printing, insertion and distribution, with a minimum order of 50,000 copies and GST extra. The full breakdown is on our pricing page.

That matters because it removes the usual trade-off. Picking the bigger brand costs nothing extra, and picking the smaller one saves nothing. The only question is which title’s copies land in the households you need.

How do you choose between two strong Hindi titles in one city?

Start with the localities, not the mastheads. In most large Hindi-belt cities, two titles split the market, and they rarely split it evenly street by street. One may own the old city and the cantonment while the other owns the new colonies and the highway townships.

The method we use:

1. List the localities or pin codes your customers actually come from. A showroom, a school or a hospital usually draws from a radius, not a whole district.
2. Ask for locality-wise copy counts for each title’s edition. Vendors and distributors know these; the national number does not.
3. Assign each locality to the denser title. That gives you one title per area and no household receiving the same flyer twice.
4. Put a different QR code or phone number on each title’s batch, so the next campaign can be re-weighted on response, not on assumption. Our guide to tracking insert response with QR codes covers the setup.

When is a single Hindi title enough?

Often. A split adds planning work and a second print version for tracking, and it only pays when the market is genuinely divided. Use one title when:

• It clearly leads the district. In many UP and Bihar district towns, one title carries most of the Hindi copies and a second booking adds little.
• The campaign is under about one lakh copies. At 50,000 to 80,000 copies, one dense edition usually covers the target belt.
• The catchment is compact. A single market, a cluster of colonies, or one side of the city is usually one title’s territory.
• You are testing. The first campaign in a new city is cleaner to read with one title and one tracking code.

For district-level targeting inside a title, see our guide to hyperlocal pin-code targeting.

Should Hindi-belt advertisers also add an English daily?

Sometimes, for a narrow slice. In Lucknow, Jaipur, Indore or Patna, an English daily such as The Times of India or Hindustan Times reaches a smaller, often higher-income set of households in specific colonies. Premium real estate, international schools and high-end retail sometimes justify a small English allocation there.

For most offers in these cities, though, the Hindi dailies carry the volume. The English vs vernacular newspapers guide explains how to size each side, and our regional-language insert copy guide covers writing the Hindi version so it reads naturally rather than as a translation.

What should you ask before booking a Hindi daily?

Five questions settle most decisions:

1. Which edition and sub-edition covers my localities, and what is its latest ABC-certified figure?
2. How many copies of that edition reach my specific pin codes?
3. Which days does this edition carry the most inserts? See how many inserts share your delivery day.
4. What size and paper weight do this title’s insertion centres accept?
5. What proof of distribution will I receive? Our distribution certificate guide explains what a real one includes.

If an answer comes back as a national readership number, ask again for the edition figure.