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The Times of India
Let the Truth Prevail
20 August 2013 front page ofThe Times of India(Kolkataedition)
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)The Times Group
EditorJaideep Bose
Founded3 November 1838;185 years ago(1838-11-03)
LanguageEnglish
HeadquartersMumbai,Maharashtra,India
CountryIndia
Circulation1,872,442 (as of April 2023)[1]
Sister newspapersThe Economic Times
Navbharat Times
Maharashtra Times
Ei Samay
Mumbai Mirror
Vijaya Karnataka
Bangalore Mirror
Times Now News
ISSN0971-8257
OCLCnumber23379369
Websitetimesofindia.indiatimes.comEdit this at Wikidata

The Times of India,also known by its abbreviationTOI,is an IndianEnglish-languagedaily newspaperand digital news media owned and managed byThe Times Group.It is thefourth-largest newspaper in India by circulationandlargest selling English-language daily in the world.[1][2][3][4][5][6]It is the oldest English-language newspaper in India, and the second-oldest Indian newspaper still in circulation, with its first edition published in 1838.[7]It is nicknamed as "The Old Lady ofBori Bunder",[8][9]and is a "newspaper of record".[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]

Near the beginning of the 20th century,Lord Curzon,theViceroy of India,calledTOI"the leading paper in Asia".[17][18]In 1991, theBBCrankedTOIamong the world's six best newspapers.[19][20]

It is owned and published byBennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.(B.C.C.L.), which is owned by theSahu Jainfamily. In the Brand Trust Report India study 2019,TOIwas rated as the most trusted English newspaper in India.[21]In a 2021 survey,Reuters InstituteratedTOIas the most trusted media news brand among English-speaking, online news users in India.[22][23]In recent decades, the newspaper has been criticised for establishing in the Indian news industry the practice ofaccepting payments from persons and entities in exchange for positive coverage.[4]

History

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Times of India Buildings,c. 1898

Beginnings

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Diamond Jubilee,November 1898

TOIissued its first edition on 3 November 1838 asThe Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce.[24][25]The paper was published on Wednesdays and Saturdays under the direction of RaobahadurNarayan Dinanath Velkar,a Maharashtriansocial reformer,and contained news from Britain and the world, as well as theIndian Subcontinent.J. E. Brennan was its first editor he died in 1839 andGeorge Buistbecame the Editor. It became a daily in 1850 under him.George Buisthad a pro British editorial policy and aParsishareholder Fardoonji Naoroji wanted him to change his editorial policy particularly in background of theIndian Rebellion of 1857.However, Buist refused to change his editorial policy or give up his editorial independence. After a shareholder's meeting he was replaced byRobert Knight.[26][27][28][29]

In 1860, editorRobert Knight(1825–1892) bought the Indian shareholders' interests, merged with rivalBombay Standard,and started India's first news agency. It wiredTimesdispatches to papers across the country and became the Indian agent forReutersnews service. In 1861, he changed the name from the BombayTimes and StandardtoThe Times of India.Knight fought for a press free of prior restraint or intimidation, frequently resisting the attempts by governments, business interests and cultural spokesmen, and led the paper to national prominence.[30][31]In the 19th century, this newspaper company employed more than 800 people and had a sizeable circulation in India and Europe.

Bennett and Coleman ownership

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Subsequently,TOIsaw its ownership change several times until 1892 when an English journalist namedThomas Jewell Bennett,along with Frank Morris Coleman (who later drowned in the 1915 sinking of theSSPersia), acquired the newspaper through their new joint stock company,Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.

Dalmia ownership

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SirStanley ReededitedTOIfrom 1907 until 1924 and received correspondence from major figures of India such asMahatma Gandhi.In all he lived in India for fifty years. He was respected in the United Kingdom as an expert on Indian current affairs.[citation needed]

Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltdwas sold to sugar magnateRamkrishna Dalmiaof the industrial family, for₹20 million(equivalent to₹2.9 billion or US$34 million in 2023) in 1946, as India became independent and the British owners left.[32]In 1955 theVivian BoseCommission of Inquiry found that Ramkrishna Dalmia, in 1947, had engineered the acquisition of the media giantBennett Coleman & Co.by transferring money from a bank and an insurance company of which he was the chairman. In the court case that followed, Ramkrishna Dalmia was sentenced to two years inTihar Jailafter having been convicted of embezzlement and fraud.[4]

Most of the jail term he managed to spend in hospital. Upon his release, his son-in-law,Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain,to whom he had entrusted the running of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., rebuffed his efforts to resume command of the company.[4]

Jain family (Shanti Prasad Jain)

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In the early 1960s, Shanti Prasad Jain was imprisoned on charges of selling newsprint on the black market.[33]And based on the Vivian Bose Commission's earlier report which found wrongdoings of the Dalmia – Jain group, that included specific charges against Shanti Prasad Jain, theGovernment of Indiafiled a petition to restrain and remove the management of Bennett, Coleman and Company. Based on the pleading, the Justice directed the Government to assume control of the newspaper which resulted in replacing half of the directors and appointing a Bombay High Court judge as the chairman.[34]

Under the Government of India

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TOIon a 1988 stamp
TOIon a 2013 stamp

Following the Vivian Bose Commission report indicating serious wrongdoings of the Dalmia–Jain group, on 28 August 1969, the Bombay High Court, under Justice J. L. Nain, passed an interim order to disband the existing board of Bennett, Coleman & Co and to constitute a new board under the Government. The bench ruled that "Under these circumstances, the best thing would be to pass such orders on the assumption that the allegations made by the petitioners that the affairs of the company were being conducted in a manner prejudicial to public interest and to the interests of the Company are correct".[17]Following that order, Shanti Prasad Jain ceased to be a director and the company ran with new directors on board, appointed by the Government of India, with the exception of a lone stenographer of the Jains. The court appointedD K Kunteas chairman of the board. Kunte had no prior business experience and was also an opposition member of theLok Sabha.[citation needed]

Back to the Jain family

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In 1976, during theEmergencyin India, the Government transferred ownership of the newspaper back toAshok Kumar Jain,who was Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain's son and Ramkrishna Dalmia's grandson. He is the father of the current ownersSamir JainandVineet Jain).[35]The Jains too often landed themselves in various money laundering scams andAshok Kumar Jainhad to flee the country when theEnforcement Directoratepursued his case strongly in 1998 for alleged violations of illegal transfer of funds (to the tune of US$1.25 million) to an overseas account inSwitzerland.[36][37][38][39]

During the Emergency

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On 26 June 1975, the day after India declareda state of emergency,theBombayedition ofTOIcarried an entry in its obituary column that read "D.E.M. O'Cracy, beloved husband of T.Ruth, father of L.I.Bertie, brother of Faith, Hope and Justice expired on 25 June".[40]The move was a critique of Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi's 21-month state of emergency, which is now widely known as "the Emergency" and seen by many as a roundlyauthoritarianera of Indian government.[41][42]

Bombay Times

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The Bombay Times is a free supplement of The Times of India, in theMumbai(formerlyBombay) region. It covers celebrity news, news features, international and national music news, international and national fashion news, lifestyle and feature articles pegged on news events both national and international that have local interest value. The main paper covers national news. Over ten years of presence, it has become a benchmark for the Page 3 social scene.[citation needed]

The Times of India- and thereby theBombay Times- are market leaders in terms ofcirculation.The name of this supplement contains the word Bombay, which is the older Portuguese name of the city. It is not retained in the new supplementMumbai Mirrorthat comes withTimes of India.[citation needed]

The Timesin the 21st century

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In late 2006, Times Group acquired Vijayanand Printers Limited (VPL). VPL previously published two Kannada newspapers,Vijay KarnatakaandUsha Kiran,and an English daily,Vijay Times.Vijay Karnatakawas the leader in the Kannada newspaper segment then.[43]

The paper launched a Chennai edition on 12 April 2008.[44]It launched a Kolhapur edition in February 2013.[citation needed]

TOIFA Awards

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Introduced in 2013[45]and awarded for the second time in 2016,[46]"The Times of India Film Awards"or the" TOIFA "is an award for the work in Film Industry decided by a global public vote on the nomination categories.[47]

Editions and publications

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TOI'sfirst office is opposite theChhatrapati Shivaji TerminusinMumbai,where it was founded.[25]

TOIis published by themedia groupBennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. The company, along with its other group of companies, known asThe Times Group,also publishesAhmedabad Mirror,Bangalore Mirror,Mumbai Mirror,Pune Mirror;Economic Times;ET Panache(Mumbai,DelhiandBangaloreon Monday to Friday) andET Panache(PuneandChennaion every Saturday);Ei Samay Sangbadpatra,(aBengalidaily);Maharashtra Times,(aMarathidaily);Navbharat Times,(aHindidaily).

TOIhas its editions in major cities such asMumbai,[48]Agra,Ahmedabad,Allahabad,Aurangabad,Bareilly,Bangalore,Belgaum,Bhopal,Bhubaneswar,Coimbatore,Chandigarh,Chennai,Dehradun,Delhi,Gorakhpur,Gurgaon,Guwahati,Gwalior,Hubli,Hyderabad,Indore,Jabalpur,Jaipur,Jammu,Kanpur,Kochi,Kolhapur,Kolkata,Lucknow,Ludhiana,Madurai,Malabar,Mangalore,Meerut,Mysore,Nagpur,Nashik,Navi Mumbai,Noida,Panaji,Patna,Pondicherry,Pune,Raipur,Rajkot,Ranchi,Shimla,Surat,Thane,Tiruchirapally,Trivandrum,Vadodara,Varanasi,VijayawadaandVisakhapatnam.[citation needed]

Times Group Network

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  • The Speaking Tree:A spiritual network intended to allow spiritual seekers to link spiritual seekers with established practitioners.[49]
  • Healthmeup:A health, diet, and fitness website.[50]
  • Cricbuzz:In November 2014, Times Internet acquired Cricbuzz, a website focused oncricketnews.[51]

Criticism and controversies

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[edit]
Main article:Paid news in India

TOIhas been criticised for being the first to institutionalise the practice of paid news in India, where politicians, businessmen, corporations and celebrities can pay the newspaper and its journalists would carry the desired news for the payer.[4][52][53]The newspaper offers prominence with which the paid news is placed and the page on which it is displayed based on the amount of the payment. According to this practice, a payment plan assures a news feature and ensures positive coverage to the payer.[4]

In 2005,TOIbegan the practice of "private treaties", also called as "brand capital", where new companies, individuals or movies seeking mass coverage and public relations, major brands and organisations were offered sustained positive coverage and plugs in its news columns in exchange for shares or other forms of financial obligations toBennett, Coleman & Company, Ltd. (B.C.C.L.)– the owners ofTOI.[4][52]

The B.C.C.L., with its "private treaties" program, acquired stakes in 350 companies and generated 15% of its revenues by 2012, according to a critical article inThe New Yorker.The "paid news" and "private treaties" practice started byTOIhas since been adopted byThe Hindustan Timesgroup, theIndia Todaygroup, theOutlookgroup, and other major media groups in India including Indian television channels.[4][54]This division of the company was later renamed Brand Capital and has contracts in place with many companies in diverse sectors.[citation needed]

The "paid news" and "private treaties" blur the lines between content and advertising, with the favourable coverage written by the staff reporters on the payroll ofTOI.[4]The newspaper has defended its practice in 2012 by stating that it includes a note of disclosure to the reader – though in a small font – that its contents are "advertorial, entertainment promotional feature", that they are doing this to generate revenues just like "all newspapers in the world do advertorials" according toTOIowners.[4][52]According to Maya Ranganathan, this overlap in the function of a journalist to also act as a marketing and advertisement revenue seeker for the newspaper raises conflict of interest questions, a problem that has morphed into ever-larger scale in India and recognised by India'sSEBIauthority in July 2009.[52]

Under an ad sales initiative called Medianet, if a large company orBollywoodstudio sponsored a news-worthy event, the event would be covered byTOI,but the name of the company or studio that sponsored it would not be mentioned in the paper unless they paidTOIfor advertising. In 2010, a report by a subcommittee of thePress Council of Indiafound that Medianet's paid news strategy had spread to a large number of newspapers and more than five hundred television channels.[4][55]

Critics state that the company's paid news and private treaties skew its coverage and shield its newspaper advertisers from scrutiny.[4]

The Hoot,a media criticism website, has pointed out that when a lift in a 19-storey luxury apartment complex in Bangalore crashed -- killing two workers and injuring seven -- all the English language andKannadalanguage newspapers, with the exception ofTOI,called out the name of the construction company, Sobha Developers, which was a private-treaty partner. An article titled "reaping gold through bt cotton" -- which first appeared in the Nagpur edition ofTOIin 2008 -- reappeared unchanged in 2011, this time with a small-print alert that the article was a "marketing feature". In both cases, the article was factually incorrect and made false claims about the success ofMonsanto's genetically modified cotton.[4]

According to a critical article published in the Indian investigative news magazineThe Caravan,when theHondaMotors plant inGurgaonexperienced an eight-month-long conflict between management and non-unionised workers over wages and work conditions in 2005, theTimes of Indiacovered the concerns of Honda and the harm done to India's investment climate, and largely ignored the issues raised by workers.[4]

Vineet Jain,managing director of B.C.C.L., has insisted that a wall does exist between sales and the newsroom, and that the paper does not give favorable coverage to the company's business partners. "Our editors don't know who we have," Jain said, although he later acknowledged that all private-treaty clients are listed on the company's Web site.[4]Ravindra Dhariwal, the former CEO of B.C.C.L. had defended private treaties in a 2010 interview with the magazineOutlookand claims that the partners in the private treaties sign contracts where they agree to clauses that they will not receive any favourable editorial coverage.[citation needed]

Anti-competitive behaviour

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There have been claims thatTOIwould strike deals with advertisers only if they removed their advertisements from other competitor newspapers.[4]

TOIis also embroiled in an active lawsuit against theFinancial Times.In 1993, when theFinancial Timeswas preparing to enter the Indian market,Samir Jain,the vice-chairman of B.C.C.L., registered the term "Financial Times" as a trademark of his company and declared it his intellectual property in an attempt to stymie theFinancial Timesand prevent them from competing withThe Economic Times,which is owned by B.C.C.L.[4]

In 1994, when theHindustan Timeswas the top-selling paper in New Delhi,TOIslashed their prices by a third, to one and a half rupees after having built up their ads sales force in preparation for the price drop to make up for the lost circulation revenue. By 1998, theHindustan Timeshad dropped to second place in Delhi.TOItook a similar strategy in Bangalore where they dropped the price to one rupee despite protests fromSiddharth Varadarajan,one of the editors of the newspaper at the time, who called the strategy "predatory pricing".[4]

Cobrapost sting operation

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In 2018,Vineet Jain,managing director of B.C.C.L., and Sanjeev Shah, executive president of B.C.C.L., were caught on camera as part of asting operationbyCobrapostagreeing to promote right-wing content through the group's many media properties for a proposed spend of₹500 crore(US$60 million), some of which the client said could only be paid with black money.[56]B.C.C.L. has responded to the sting claiming that the video that was released byCobrapostwas "doctored" and "incomplete" and that the CEO Vineet Jain was engaged in a "reverse-sting" of his own to expose the undercover reporter during the filming of the video.[57]The company is yet to release the video evidence.[citation needed]

Notable employees

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Publisher

See also

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  • Times LitFest,an annual literary festival in Delhi, organised bythe Timesin partnership with Rajnigandha

References

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  1. ^ab"Highest Circulated Daily Newspapers (language wise)"(PDF).Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).Archived(PDF)from the original on 28 July 2023.Retrieved28 July2023.
  2. ^Kaminsky & Long 2011,p. 706.
  3. ^Westhead, Rick (5 February 2010)."It's the best of Times".Toronto Star.Archivedfrom the original on 26 February 2020.Retrieved20 April2018.
  4. ^abcdefghijklmnopqrAuletta 2012,pp. 52–61.
  5. ^"National Newspapers Total Circulation".International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Circulations(IFABC). 2011.Archivedfrom the original on 20 August 2018.Retrieved10 November2014.
  6. ^"Highest daily English-language newspaper circulation".Guinness World Records.12 May 2024.Retrieved12 May2024.
  7. ^Bhattacherje 2009,p. A126.
  8. ^Joseph 2005,p. 227.
  9. ^"The old lady of Bori Bunder celebrates 175 yrs with panache".Exchange4Media. 24 April 2013.Archivedfrom the original on 22 March 2020.Retrieved9 March2020.
  10. ^Frost et al. 2017,p. 27.
  11. ^Barton, Weller & Yilmaz 2014,p. 28.
  12. ^Anil 2023a,p. 192.
  13. ^Singh 2015,p. 52.
  14. ^Halterman, Andrew; Keith, Katherine A.; Sarwar, Sheikh Muhammad; Connor, Brendan (27 May 2021). "Corpus-Level Evaluation for Event QA: The IndiaPoliceEvents Corpus Covering the 2002 Gujarat Violence".arXiv:2105.12936[cs.CL].
  15. ^Caulfield, Mike (8 January 2017)."National Newspapers of Record".Retrieved12 May2024.
  16. ^Anil 2023b,p. 25.
  17. ^abMalhan 2013,p. 212.
  18. ^Bose, Jaideep (23 April 2013)."A daily in the life of India".TOI.Archivedfrom the original on 5 February 2020.Retrieved23 July2017.
  19. ^Baxi & Prasad 2005,p. 167.
  20. ^Aggarwal & Gupta 2001,p. 128.
  21. ^"TRA's Brand Trust Report India Study 2019"(PDF).TRA Research Pvt. Ltd. p. 48.Archived(PDF)from the original on 29 July 2021.Retrieved29 July2021.
  22. ^"Digital News Report 2021".Reuters Institute.p. 135.
  23. ^Content, Afaqs! Partner (24 April 2023)."Trust in The Times of India: The Key to Its Continued Success as India's Most Trusted News Brand".afaqs!.Retrieved12 May2024.
  24. ^"The Times of India".Encyclopædia Britannica.15 April 2013.Retrieved10 November2014.
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  27. ^Parthasarathy 1989,p. 273.
  28. ^Naqvi 2007,p. 58.
  29. ^Padgaonkar, Dileep (29 January 2013)."Life and times of an editor".Dileep Padgaonkar.Business Standard.Archivedfrom the original on 5 December 2018.Retrieved5 December2018.
  30. ^Hirschmann 2008.
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  32. ^Kasbekar 2006,p. 112.
  33. ^"Indian Millionaires arrested".The Herald (Glasgow).5 May 1964.Archivedfrom the original on 11 June 2022.Retrieved6 May2015– viaReuters.
  34. ^Kohli-Khandekar 2013.
  35. ^Subramanian, Samanth (1 December 2012)."Supreme Being: How Samir Jain created the modern Indian newspaper industry".The Caravan.Retrieved10 November2014.
  36. ^Mitra, Sumit (7 July 1997)."Trying times: Editorial changes inThe Times of Indiaraise disturbing questions ".India Today.Retrieved10 November2014.
  37. ^"Ashok Jain arrested".The Indian Express.4 July 1998.Archivedfrom the original on 11 June 2022.Retrieved18 May2013.
  38. ^Mahalingam, Sudha (18–31 July 1998)."Ashok Jain is arrested by the Enforcement Directorate".Frontline.Vol. 15, no. 15.ISSN0970-1710.Archived fromthe originalon 14 May 2014.Retrieved10 November2014.
  39. ^"A newspaper scandal: Editorial changes inThe Times of Indiaraise disturbing questions ".Frontline.Vol. 15, no. 12. 6–19 June 1998. Archived fromthe originalon 14 May 2014.Retrieved10 November2014.
  40. ^Austin 1999,p. 295.
  41. ^"New book flays Indira Gandhi's decision to impose Emergency".IBN Live News.30 May 2011. Archived fromthe originalon 23 November 2013.Retrieved10 November2014.
  42. ^Desai 1986,p. 208.
  43. ^"Times Group acquires Vijayanand Printers".TOI.15 June 2006.Archivedfrom the original on 29 January 2021.Retrieved10 November2014.
  44. ^"TN CM launches Chennai edition of Times of India".The Economic Times.13 April 2008.Archivedfrom the original on 19 August 2020.Retrieved10 November2014.
  45. ^"TOIFA 2013 nominations".TOI.Archivedfrom the original on 8 April 2015.Retrieved17 July2016.
  46. ^"TOIFA 2016: 'Bajirao Mastani' Bags 6 Awards, Celebs Have a Rocking Night".IndiaWest.21 March 2016. Archived fromthe originalon 22 May 2016.Retrieved17 July2016.
  47. ^"About TOI Film Awards 2016".TOI.Archivedfrom the original on 5 September 2016.Retrieved17 July2016.
  48. ^"Online Mumbai Newspaper".Mid Day.24 April 2014.Archivedfrom the original on 21 April 2014.Retrieved24 April2014.
  49. ^"Times Internet launches Hindi version of 'Speaking Tree'".Exchange4Media. 17 April 2014.Archivedfrom the original on 28 October 2017.Retrieved1 November2017.
  50. ^Pahwa, Nikhil (17 March 2011)."Indiatimes Launches Health Blog – HealthMeUp".Medianama.Archivedfrom the original on 7 November 2017.Retrieved1 November2017.
  51. ^"Times Internet acquires cricbuzz".TOI.10 November 2014.Archivedfrom the original on 26 October 2015.Retrieved15 August2015.
  52. ^abcdRodrigues & Ranganathan 2014,pp. 121–127.
  53. ^Mudgal 2015,pp. 100–120.
  54. ^"50 Powerful People".India Today.Archivedfrom the original on 25 October 2019.Retrieved5 March2019.
  55. ^Rodrigues & Ranganathan 2014,pp. 123–125.
  56. ^"At the Times Group, Cobrapost Sting Shows How Cash is King".The Wire (India).Archivedfrom the original on 4 April 2019.Retrieved5 March2019.
  57. ^"Times Group Says Vineet Jain Was Conducting 'Reverse Sting' on Cobrapost".The Wire (India).Archivedfrom the original on 6 March 2019.Retrieved5 March2019.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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