The Times of India

(Redirected from The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce)

Categories: Indian newspapers | English-language newspapers | Newspapers of Mumbai | News syndication

Image:Toi 150 common man.jpg
The Common Man featured on a commemorative stamp released by the Indian Postal Service on the 150th Anniversary of the Times of India - 1988.

The Times of India often abbreviated to TOI, is one of India's leading daily newspapers and the highest circulation English language daily broadsheet in the world. It is published from eight cities across India, has a circulation of over 2.14 million copies, and is read by over 7.4 million people.

Contents

[edit]

History

It was founded on November 3, 1838 as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce, and served the British residents of western India. It adopted its present name in 1861. It is published by India's largest media group, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. This company along with its other group companies are more popularly known as The Times Group, which also publishes The Economic Times, the Navbharat Times, and the Maharashtra Times.

[edit]

Regular features

[edit]

Common Man

The newspaper also runs the cartoons of the popular Indian political cartoonist R K Laxman. The "common man" is a senior Indian citizen present in each of the cartoons only as a mute witness to every event. Most of the times these events are political which directly affect the common man.

[edit]

Criticisms

The newspaper has been criticized by some of its readers for its efforts to reach out to new market segments. The modelling of sections of the newspaper upon fashion tabloids is a case in point.

Historically, The Times of India has been praised for its content. It has also collected contributions from readers for national calamities. In the recent past, however, it is claimed that the newspaper's focus has shifted away from journalistic excellence. The newspaper has also been known for promoting brands that are owned or supported by its parent company, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (like Femina, Radio Mirchi, Planet M, Times Music). Giving extra coverage and sensationalising events sponsored by an entity belonging to the parent company has been a practice with Times of India. The Miss India contest, where Femina magazine is a co-sponsor, is a case in point.

The newspaper has also been accused of overly sensationalizing news stories. An infamous example being the Rift in powerful biz family article, which talked about a rift between the two brothers of a major business family and suggested a split of the company between the two while neither mentioning the brothers' names in the article nor doing a follow-up story. Most readers guessed it was the Ambani brothers. Yet, while many people criticised the piece initially, the newspaper was still the first to break the news six months before the feud between the brothers was broken on an Indian television channel.

Though the Times has traditionally tried to portray an image of political neutrality, it has been by and large viewed as a pro-Establishment paper. It tends to vary in its support between the BJP and Congress Party, depending on the nature of the ruling party at the Central Government. Its whole-hearted approval of Indira Gandhi's excessive repression measures during the internal Emergency in the 1970s is not lost on political observers. But whether one loves it or hates it, the fact is that The Times of India has consistently produced some of the country's finest journalists and if one goes through the 'Top 10' list of India's best-known or most influential journalists today -- M.J. Akbar, Praful Bidwai, Shekhar Gupta, Prem Shankar Jha, Harish Khare, Chandan Mitra, P. Sainath, Vir Sanghvi, Rajdeep Sardesai and Siddharth Varadarajan -- as many as seven of these (i.e. barring Akbar, Gupta and Sanghvi) are or were Times of India 'products'.

[edit]

Market share

Also notable was the breaking of the story of the leakage Common Admission Test Exam paper for the IIM's. This shift in style of reporting, along with massive revamping of the City offerings like the Delhi Times and Bombay Times has helped the newspaper maintain its position as the largest selling English daily in India, and in one year even usurp the largest English broadsheet Daily in the world beating the USA Today.

The newspaper today sells 2.6 million copies daily and has an average issue readership in excess of 7 million, which makes it by far the world's largest English Broadsheet Newspaper.

[edit]

Editions

[edit]

Prominent Supplements

[edit]

City Centric Supplements

[edit]

Topical Supplements

[edit]

People

[edit]

External links