According to the latest Census of 2011, Hindi was the first language of choice of 57.1% of the population. This indicates that to convey a message across to most people in India, Hindi newspapers are the most appropriate media. This is as true for a death anniversary Ad as for any other kind of advertisement.

After all, what is a death anniversary Ad if it is not a message to be shared by as many people as possible? It is for this reason that descendants of eminent leaders who are no more, place advertisements in widely-read newspapers. These death anniversary messages in Hindi (also known as remembrance ads) reach out to as many readers of the newspapers carrying the ads as possible. The same is true for those who did hold such high positions. But they do need to be known by even people who never had the opportunity of doing so in the late people’s lifetimes.

Hence, more important than the content of a message is the language in which it is presented. This must be in a language which is most widely understood. In this case it is Hindi regardless of the readers’ mother tongue.

To meet this requirement, India’s top-six Hindi newspapers are:

1) Dainik Bhaskar, owned by ‘D.B. Corp Ltd., is a broadsheet Hindi daily newspaper that is the largest circulated daily newspaper of India with a circulation of 4,320,781 daily (as of July-December 2018) according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Launched in Gwalior in 1948, it now has five editions in Madhya Pradesh, one edition in Uttar Pradesh, four editions in Chhattisgarh, 12 editions in Rajasthan, three editions in Haryana, four editions in Punjab, four editions in Bihar, three editions Jharkhand and one edition each in Chandigarh, HP, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir. It has gained a reputation mainly among the Hindi speaking readers of Central and North-Western regions of India.

2) Dainik Jagran (Daily Awakening) is a broadsheet Hindi daily newspaper with a circulation of 3,410,026 daily (as of July-December 2018) according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Launched in Kanpur in 1942, it has a total of 36 editions printed across the country and is immensely popular among readers in Agra, Aligarh, Delhi and Lucknow.

3) Amar Ujala is a broadsheet Hindi daily newspaper with a circulation of 2,067,253 daily (as of July-December 2018) according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Launched in Agra in 1948, it now has 20 editions in seven states and one union territory covering 180 districts. This newspaper is recognised as the third most popular Hindi daily in the country with an average circulation of 19.2 lakhs and 18 editions across seven states.

4) Hindustan is a broadsheet Hindi daily newspaper and the fourth-largest circulated newspaper in India with a circulation of 1,989,117 daily (as of July-December 2018) according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Launched in Delhi on 12 April 1936, it is now published by Hindustan Media Ventures Limited. Hindustan has 21 editions across the Hindi belt. They are spread across Delhi, Haryana (Faridabad), Bihar (Patna, Muzaffarpur, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Purnea), Jharkhand (Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad), Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow, Varanasi, Meerut, Agra, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Bareilly, Moradabad, Aligarh, and Kanpur) and Uttarakhand (Dehradun, Haridwar, Haldwani). Apart from these, the paper is also available in key towns like Mathura, Saharanpur and Faizabad.

5) Rajasthan Patrika is a broadsheet Hindi daily newspaper with a circulation of 3,513,756 daily (as of 07 July 2017) according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Launched in 1956 in Jaipur, it is called as Rajasthan Patrika in Delhi and Rajasthan, and as Patrika in nine other states. Published in eight major states in 18 editions, Rajasthan Patrika reaches out to major cities like Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Ajmer, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Jodhpur, Kota, Hubballi etc.

6) Navbharat Times (NBT) is one of the largest circulated as well as largest read broadsheet Hindi newspapers of Delhi and Mumbai and Lucknow. Headquartered in Mumbai, it has a circulation of 769,146 daily (as of November 2015) according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Reasons to publish Death Anniversary Messages in Hindi:

People not only relate much more with their mother tongues, if one resides in a Hindi-speaking community, the death anniversary messages are expected to make a greater impact on the people if it is published in a language with which readers can connect and are more comfortable with.

Because obituary messages are very personal and usually published by close family members and friends to commemorate the death of a much loved individual, it is best to publish the remembrance message in a popular Hindi daily. It makes the communication more cordial in its approach. This not so much the case when the remembrance ad is in English.