Leading Indian newspapers on social media: Times of India ahead in English newspapers, TV channels overall leaders, Jagran leads in Hindi

Social media has revolutionized the news world.

With more hits coming from Facebook [and Twitter], media groups are increasingly focusing on promoting their content on these sites.

'Likes', 'Shares' and 'Retweets' (RTs) are now used to gauge popularity of stories, reports and articles.

Most media organisations want 'content' that does well on social media.

Facebook is now considered more a platform that sends hits, rather than Twitter.

Twitter works in a different way but first, we shall look at the Facebook presence of Indian media.

Indian Media on Facebook, Twitter

All those busy in making strategy for social media, talk about Clicks and Eyeballs. The clicks [hits] are obtained through smart, catchy and even sensational [misleading] headlines.

Especially, Hindi media is doing it more to grab eyeballs. The major media groups that have strong presence on the ground, are doing well on the social media too.

But there are exceptions too. Some papers with huge circulation, don't have strong social media presence.

When you 'like' a page, you automatically become a follower and hence a consumer of its content. The more 'likes' and 'followers', a media company has on Facebook, the more is the reach of its content.

And, it not only brings advertisement revenue but also increases the brand value of the company. The media groups also use different ways, even spending money to drive campaigns for more 'followers'.

ENGLISH MEDIA

Times of India is the clear leader on Facebook. It has more than 79.38 lakh or 7.9 million likes [followers]. However, the surprise is that 'The Hindu', which is considered more traditional, is second in the list with 44.17 lakh or 4.4 million Facebook likes.

Hindustan Times has 41.33 lakh likes which puts it at the third place. Indian Express is also catching up fast now, though it was far behind till recently. Express has nearly 35 lakh 'likes'. Deccan Chronicle follows.

Among other English media, the weekly India Today has a strong following on Facebook. It posts content of dailyO as well. India Today has nearly 73 lakh or 7.3 lakh followers, which puts it among the most influential news brands on Facebook, in India.

Times of India 79.38 lakh [nearing 8 million]
The Hindu 43 lakh or 4.3 million
HT 39.68 lakh
Indian Express 34.69 lakh
Deccan Chronicle 13.98 lakh

TV CHANNELS' INFLUENCE: Aaj Tak, ABP leaders on Facebook

When it comes to TV channels, Aaj Tak and ABP News are the leaders. Aaj Tak is at the TOP. In fact, the two channel leads in all the segments as they are far ahead of English, Hindi and regional papers too, on Facebook.

Both Aaj Tak and ABP have crossed 10 million or 1 crore figure on Facebook. It is followed by NDTV, Zee News, Times Now, IBNlive.com, India TV and IBN 7. There are many other channels too, with over a million followers on this social networking website.

Aaj Tak 1.1 crore plus [10.1 million]
ABP News 1 crore plus [100 lakh], more than 10 millions
NDTV 58 lakh or 5.8 million
Zee News 51.86 lakh
Times Now 40.17 lakh
IBNlive.com 37.21 lakh
India TV 42.36 lakh
IBN 7 27.37 lakh

JAGRAN leads Hindi newspapers

Dainik Jagran 84.21 lakh or 8.4 million
Bhaskar 78.48 lakh
Amar Ujala 39.86 lakh
Navbharat Times Online 36.71 lakh
Punjab Kesari 29.07 lakh

SOME OTHER NOTABLE NEWS SOURCES WITH HIGH REACH ON FACEBOOK

Quint 31.40 lakh or 3.1 million
24 Ghanta 29.32 lakh [Bangla]
ABP Ananda 27.12 lakh
Manorama [Malayalam] 21.27 lakh
Mathrubhumi 18.66 lakh [Malayalam]
The Siasat Daily 12.64 lakh [Urdu]

For those interested in New Media, see the link below:
Top ten 'New Media' websites in India. LINK

*The figures above will keep changing, increase, in most cases. The data is for January 24, 2016.

Top ten news websites in India: New Media challenges existing media with faster news, fresh perspective

These are exciting times in Indian journalism. The 'New Media' is emerging and is throwing a major challenge to existing media--traditional newspapers and TV channels.

Major newspapers whose websites earlier cornered a large chunk of the news traffic on internet, are now facing a tough competition.

There are several reasons for it. Read ten points on, 'The Good and The Bad about New Media', here:

1. Unlike traditional media, the newsrooms here work at a fast pace and news is delivered instantly.

2. These sites provide you with fresh, alternative perspective. There are more Op-Ed pieces and individuals with a flair for writing, who didn't get space in print earlier, get published.

3. There are less restrictions in New Media. Things which people wanted to talk or hear about but that was sanitised and censored in traditional media, gets splashed in New Media.

4. Stories are being told differently. There is more creativity visible in headlines too.

5. There is no space restriction. If someone writes brilliantly and the stuff is really interesting, then he/she can write 2,000-5,000 words and it would be published.

6. Interesting information that was earlier kept aside for columns or diary items, is being packaged well in the story form and delivered instantly. This is putting up pressure on traditional media.

7. Unlike traditional media, New Media doesn't need a huge staff. Often, a small but dedicated team of talented people, can come up with creative headlines or an interesting twist that grab eyeballs.

8. Another positive aspect is that the monopoly of big media houses is ending. There are less 'holy cows' and fewer 'taboos'. Also, emergence of New Media brings more opportunities to journalists and hence people won't shy away from writing about big media houses, which was avoided till now.

9. It is not that everything is going great. There is sloppy reporting too. Just having a couple of talented persons doesn't compensate for a nationwide network. As a result, insight is often missing about stories in states that are far away from Delhi, Mumbai.

10. In fact, many incidents that require serious reporting don't get reported well, because the New Media either doesn't have enough resources or sends a reporter to the town much later, and he/she gets filtered information from secondary sources.

Good journalism requires good money. Unless you invest in human resources--pay your correspondent or stringer well, you can't get quality stuff all the time. Some of these New Media websites have good financial backing, while others have limited funds at disposal.

Ten Top New Media Websites

All these websites are different in the way they present news. If there is a major political happening, Scroll.in may provide you an insightful article and historical perspective. The Quint breaks a story about a VVIP's demise, much before others even think of 'breaking' the news.

The Wire tells stories at length and the editor's long experience is visible in the stories. Twocircles.Net has been there for quite long and pitches itself as voice of the marginalised.

There can be interesting opinion pieces on DailyO. TheNewsMinute focuses specially on Southern States. FirstPost is in a different league because it is flush with funds and despite its ideological bent, it has refreshing opinion pieces.

Countercurrents has been there for long but not given the due credit. There are other sites too that haven't been mentioned here. The best part about New Media is that now news can't be stopped. If any one gets air about it, they would run it, without sitting on the information.

Scroll

Catchnews 

The Quint

The Wire

First Post

The News Minute

TwoCircles.Net

DailyO

CounterCurrents

TheCitizen