Goodness me! 118 articles on TOI already. Many find it best and an equal number love to hate it. Only one thing is more obvious from this love-hate relationship – TOI has huge readership. The ratio of no. of reviews on TOI v/s any other newspaper is another pointer besides the figures that B&C advertises. So why am I writing the 119th review? (Honestly, cause the Media contest is ON..hee hee)
But then to come to any conclusion, I had to start from a dictionary (as advised by one member on MS who calls TOI a Tabloid.
A Tabloid is a newspaper that has small pages, short articles and lots of photographs. Tabloids are often considered to be less serious than other newspapers.
[- Collins Cobuild English Dictionary].
I compared TOI with Hindustan Times, The Asian Age, Indian Express, Telegraph (..oh no I don’t work in press…my dad does…) and found it to be the same. The Hindu is slightly wider. The articles are on par with others in terms o its length. Ok yes, TOI has more photographs, but whatever happened to “a picture speaks a 1000 words” - by that logic, articles are even longer..(sic! Hee hee) And would you claim an internationally acclaimed largest selling Indian national daily as “less serious”? So that rules out TOI as Tabloid. If someone disagrees, then probably all other Indian newspapers are also Tabloid. The closest one that fits the definition is Mid-Day.
I started reading TOI when I was in school (largely for Mandrake and Phantom then). Kidding! Our St. Teresa’s High School had made it mandatory, which I believe is a good practice and would recommend all parents to adopt similar measures for their children…actually any national daily for that matter.
TOI is a better newspaper, at least the national edition is. The paper quality is finest as compared to others….so is the print quality. The news coverage is good though I often find political news biased with the ruling party. Of course the language is simple. Often news is just that – news i.e. there is no analysis (which gives Hindu the points). TOI has a wider audience, spanning large age group as compared to “The Hindu” which appeals more to the intellectuals, IAS aspirants i.e. a more matured audience. But its not far behind if you read the “Special Report” in the Sunday Times or the regular Edit Page. TOI often presents a topic with one eminent personality voting “For” and one “Against”. You have articles written by renowned celebrities like Shobha De, Arundhati Roy and Cyrus Broacha…sorry for that comparison (hee hee). Sports coverage has improved though Tennis, Soccer and Cricket often blocks up a larger space. Ever thought about the “Tender Notices”, “College Admission Notices”?
Many crib that TOI has lots of advertisement and use it to promote IndiaTimes or Planet M. If you were made GM, I fail to see why you would not do the same. But if I was a manufacturer of new exciting toothpaste, given the recent cut in advertising budgets and TOI’s high prices, I would still put an half page advt, considering TOI’s huge readership and it’s quality audience. I purchased my Videocon Super Woofer 2-in-1 by seeing its ad in TOI. So why crib?
Then again there are other value additions like
1) Times Ascent and the even more wider Times Classifieds
2) Times Motorcar (slurp!)
3) Education Times – a wonderful guide for students – big and small.
4) Times Property pages – covers good real estate, articles on home finance, interior designing etc.
5) Times Personal – covers basic information on personal finance, MFs, credit cards etc. It’s nice and educative.
6) Special supplements like the one on Cancer they covered recently.
7) It is truly national paper that offers customised content i.e. people residing in Andheri get Andheri plus, then again there is Chembur-Ghatkopar Plus, Dombivli-Kalyan Plus etc. There are separate editions for Bangalore, Mumbai , Hyderabad, Udaipur, Mangalore, Coimbatore, Chennai etc., besides the National Edition (that comes at a higher price Rs. 3.0)
TOI has had several transitions and in a sense is “dynamic”. The recent style of reduced width, bright photos, fine quality pages, heading all attempts at internationalization. Sunday Times also keeps changing.
Not all changes are welcome. For me, the Sunday Times was something that I used to wait for with its Fish-Pond type column, funny articles, comic strips, my favourite Objects of Desire (pick from Popular Science) and “Open Space” etc. Now all that stuff is in main B&W paper while glossy supplements are all about people from various spheres of life. This has made my Sundays a bit lifeless, boring. But “news” is such a relative term. What is news to me may not be so for someone else. Thus, while I find it boring, it may appeal some other readers, some other age group. Eg. Knowing about Ankit Fadia, the wonder kid who tracks cybercrime or Dr. Sanjay Gupta, doctor turned journalist (just returned from Baghdad) may be inspirational to some.
TOI is often confusing. Yes some of you feel that TOI uses cheap gimmicks, semi-nude snaps on front page. Hmm…yes. See June 5, AP death toll is a very serious topic. While the picture of man carrying bucket of water was fine, the backdrop of huge hoarding of Katrina Kaif displaying summer outfit (and her flesh) is not a sensible choice. Same paper has, at the bottom of front page, an article on Hillary’s outcry and anger at Clinton-Monica affair…now? June? Front page? Is that news? …And to think he is not even a President now. And yet at times, the same bottom section has say the Birla-L&T story [June 18]. So how do you evaluate TOI?
“Bombay Times” is often ridiculed on MS. Yes, it’s a youthful, funky and BOLD supplement to a serious newspaper. And it never fails me! Invariably it is the first thing that I open up trying to judge which page is the best. Yana, Lara, Mallika, Ash, Jlo, Britney, Aguilera, Penelope (let me mention Tom, Beckham for the fem members) have so much to stare and ogle…Stop that fellas! While you criticise BT for its sleaze, have you seen HT City…come on own up Delhiites. While BT has semi-nudity I have spotted nudity in The Asian Age, several times.
My ire or charge about BT is plagiarizing! Yes, see June 2 article on BT’s front page – “Matrix & Mythology” – sounds familiar? Yes it’s a clever copy of Rit_gary’s article on “The Matrix” right here on MS [Nov 01], a year before Swamy Adhyatma came with a similar view in details [June 02]. Another goof up is June 10 edition had the entire Radio and TV listing of June 9…
With all such pros and cons covered, I would say that TOI is still a newspaper worth subscribing to.