The Times of India

The Times of India is one of India's leading daily newspapers and the largest circulated 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.

History

It was founded in 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.

Regular Features

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 one of the cartoons only as the mute witness to every event. However, right now one can aptly call it the "Tabloid of India"

Criticisms

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 from journalistic excellence.

The newspaper has also been accused of sensationalizing news stories. An infamous example being the Rift in powerful biz family (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/822623.cms) 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.

Though the Times is always neutral politically, it sometimes tends to be pro-BJP. Many readers have also objected to the new theme of the editorial in which two opposing view points are discussed about an issue. It has seen criticism for the use of the newspaper for promoting both its views and services launched by the group. The Times has published main page articles to promote the groups' websites, email service (Indiatimes).

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.

In another move to boost sales, The Times in Delhi launched a new edition in October 2003 called SpeedNews, a newspaper with condensed articles and a larger type size geared toward people on the go. The SpeedNews edition now discontinued, has been recently aped by its arch rival in the Delhi market.

Editions

• Delhi Edition
• Bombay Editon
• Bangalore Edition
• Pune Edition
• Calcutta Edition
• Lucknow Edition
• Ahmedabad Edition
• Hyderabad Edition
• Mangalore Edition

Prominent Supplements

City Centric Supplements

• Bombay Times
• Delhi Times
• Bangalore Times
• Pune Times
• Hyderabad Times
• Calcutta Times
• Lucknow Times
• Ahmedabad Times
• Baroda Times
• Chandigarh Times
• Patna Times

Topical Supplements

• Times Ascent Appointments advertising section, goes with all editions of The Times of India on Wednesday.
• Education Times Weekly round up of Education related news, articles et al, goes every week with all editions on Monday
• Times Property Weekly Supplement on Property, goes with the Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad editions every Saturday
• Times Life / Men and Women / Sunday Review
• Times Matrimonials
• Times Classifieds

External links

• The Times of India on the web (http://www.timesofindia.com/)
• Times of India - Paid News (http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/mar/05dalal.htm)
• The Times of India epaper (http://epaperdaily.timesofindia.com/)
• Times Syndication Service (http://syndication.indiatimes.com/)
• Reuters to buy 26% in Times of India (http://www.moneycontrol.com/backends/News/frontend/news_detail.php?autono=166136)