I have been avid reader of India Today for at least 19 years now. And believe me it was worth every letter that I read.
I have done all my education in Marathi medium and was worried about my English, when I entered Engineering College.
Due to my interest in current affairs, I started reading India Today. Whatever level I have achieved in English, a great extent is due to India Today.
Contents and Coverage
It is beyond doubt that India Today covers India like no one does. All the states are covered through a network of correspondents. The co-ordination of these correspondents with editorial staff in HQ and in the inputs from research really makes the stories worth reading.
Even the cartoons of Ajit Ninan have always been scoring hits on the bull!
Editors
India Today has had number of editors but they have been very consistent. I think they have managed to establish a tradition, a system , a n institution, whereby exit of a editor does not affect overall editorial effort. That is a great sign.
Stories
Whenever India Today has covered a story it has been multidimensional coverage. Statistics, investigations, comments of ALL sides, interviews ... all add up to an excellent feature stories.
Impartiality
I think this has been the major hallmark of India Today and certainly the major reason why I still read it even today.
In the days when every magazine, newspaper worth its name is having their axes to grind, India Today has tried to be very impartial.
You can find Mani Shankar Aiyer, Tavleen Singh expressing two diametrically opposite views..... on facing pages!
and I sincerely feel that....IT HAPPENS ONLY IN INDIA (Today).
Language
While keeping the use of English relatively simple, India Today has helped me in building good library of phrases for my use.
I consider the begining and ends of every story or news item in India Today as a lesson in good reporting.
Most heartening thing for me is the fact that India Today group has managed to pass on MOST of these qualities to its new sibling Aaj Tak.... Impartial, high quality, quick & fast, responsible.
I wish they start similar channel in English!