Society

Dainik Jagran History 1942-2026: India's Most-Read Daily

Dainik Jagran began as Jagran, a Hindi daily launched in Jhansi in 1942 by Puran Chandra Gupta. It relaunched from Kanpur on 21 September 1947 and expanded edi…

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FOUNDING

Jagran Launched in Jhansi

Puran Chandra Gupta, who had launched the Kanpur weekly Swatantra in 1940, started the Hindi daily Jagran from Jhansi in 1942, the year of the Quit India Movement.

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KANPUR

Relaunch in Kanpur as Dainik Jagran

On 21 September 1947, about five weeks after independence, the paper relaunched from the industrial city of Kanpur under the name Dainik Jagran.

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EXPANSION

Rewa and Bhopal Editions

Rewa (1953) and Bhopal (1956) were its first editions outside UP. The 1956 Indian Press Year Book recorded a claimed circulation of about 21,000 copies.

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GORAKHPUR

Gorakhpur, PTI and the Emergency

The Gorakhpur edition opened, founder Puran Chandra Gupta became chairman of the Press Trust of India, Jagran Prakashan was incorporated, and the Emergency brought press…

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UP NETWORK

Lucknow to Bareilly

Lucknow and Allahabad (1979), Varanasi (1979 or 1981), Meerut (1984), Agra (1986) and Bareilly (1989) gave it editions across most of the state. The founder died in 1986.

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DELHI

Delhi Edition

In 1990 the paper launched in the national capital, one of India's most competitive newspaper markets.

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NO. 1

Most-Read and Most-Circulated

By its own reporting, IRS 2003 ranked it India's most-read daily. ABC's January-June 2004 audit counted 19,10,562 copies, the most of any Indian daily in any language.

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IPO

Jagran Prakashan Goes Public

After Independent News and Media took a 26% stake, Jagran Prakashan held its IPO in 2006, then bought Mid-Day's print business (2010) and Nai Dunia (2012).

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PEAK

IRS 2019: The Readership Peak

IRS 2019 Q1 reported about 7.36 crore total readers. Q4, released in May 2020, reported 6,86,67,000, still first among all Indian dailies. Readers are not copies.

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TODAY

Print, Radio and Digital Group

Jagran Prakashan lists 10 titles across 13 states in five languages and 68 million total readers, plus Radio City and Jagran New Media with more than 59 million unique v…

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