Filling a new bottle three-quarters of the way with stale wine, then adding some fresh spirit to it and trying to pass off the whole offering as brand new isn’t the most transparent thing to do. In fact, some might call it downright misleading. And yet, that is precisely what Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2014 is attempting to do.

The irony is that each of the five publications issuing this notice has grown readership in the latest round of IRS. Dainik Jagran has grown readership by 7% to 166.3 lakh, Dainik Bhaskar by 8% to 138.3 lakh, Amar Ujala by 10% to 78 lakh. TOI has grown readership by 5% to 75.9 lakh and Hindu by 10% to 16.2 lakh. All of us have grown faster than our key competitors like HT and Hindustan (both 4%).