Following are the top five Kannada newspapers in India, according to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2009 Round 1 released recently by the Media Research Users Council (MRUC). The survey was conducted by Hansa Research. Note: These are all readership figures (in lakhs) and not circulation numbers.
| TOP 5 KANNADA DAILIEs | |||
| Rank | Newspaper | IRS 2008 ROUND 1 | IRS 2009 ROUND 1 |
| 1 | Vijay Karnataka | 96.39 | 87.44 |
| 2 | Prajavani | 63.87 | 55.88 |
| 3 | Samyukta Karnataka | 32.26 | 26.71 |
| 4 | Udayavani | 26.17 | 24.22 |
| 5 | Kannada Prabha | 23.90 | 21.17 |
| (All figures are in lakhs) | |||
