The Times of India

The Times of India

The 26 June 2010 front page of the Mumbai edition of The Times of India
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner	The Times Group
Publisher	The Times Group
Editor-in-chief	Jaideep Bose
Associate editor	Jug Suraiya
Founded	3 November 1838
Political alignment	Conservative
Language	English
Circulation	3,140,000 daily
Sister newspapers	The Economic Times Navbharat Times Maharashtra Times Ei Samay
OCLC number	23379369
Official website	timesofindia.indiatimes.com

The Times of India (TOI) is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. According to Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has the largest circulation among all English-language newspapers in the world, across all formats (broadsheet, tabloid, compact, Berliner and online). In 2008, the newspaper reported that (with a circulation of over 3.14 million) it was certified by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (India) as the world's largest selling English-language daily, ranking it as the 3rd largest selling newspaper in any language in the world. and World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. According to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2012, the Times of India is the most widely read English newspaper in India with a readership of 76.43 lakhs (7.643 million). This ranks the Times of India as the top English daily in India by readership. It is owned and published by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. which is owned by the Sahu Jain family.

History

19th century

The Times Of India was founded on 3 November 1838 as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce In Bombay, during an intermediate period between the Mughal and British Raj. Published every Saturday and Wednesday, The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce was launched as a semi-weekly edition by Raobahadur Narayan Dinanath Velkar, a Maharashtrian Reformist. It contained news from Britain and the world, as well as the Indian Subcontinent. The daily editions of the paper were started from 1850 and in 1861, the Bombay Times was renamed as The Times of India after amalgamation of three more newspapers. In the 19th century, this newspaper company employed more than 800 people and had a sizeable circulation in India and Europe. After India's independence the ownership of the paper passed on to the then famous industrial family of Dalmiyas and later it was taken over by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain of the Kunal Jain group from Bijnore, UP.

India's press in the 1840s was a motley collection of small-circulation daily or weekly sheets printed on rickety presses. Few extended beyond their small communities and seldom tried to unite the many castes, tribes, and regional subcultures of India. The Anglo-Indian papers promoted purely British interests. Robert Knight (1825–1892) was the principal founder and the first editor of the Times.

The son of a London bank clerk from the lower-middle-class, Knight proved a skilled writer and passionate reformer. Knight helped create a vibrant national newspaper industry in British India. When the Sepoy Mutiny erupted, Knight was acting editor of the Bombay Times and Standard. He broke with the rest of the English language press (which focused on Indian savagery and treachery) and instead blamed the violence on the lack of discipline and poor leadership in the army. That angered the Anglo-Indian community but attracted the Times's Indian shareholders, who made him the permanent editor. Knight blasted the mismanagement and greed of the Raj, attacking annexation policies that appropriated native lands and arbitrarily imposed taxes on previously exempt land titles, ridiculing income taxes, and exposing school systems that disregarded Indian customs and needs.

Knight led the paper to national prominence. In 1860, he bought out the Indian shareholders and merged with the rival Bombay Standard, and started India's first news agency. It wired Times dispatches to papers across the country and became the Indian agent for Reuters news service. In 1861, he changed the name from the Bombay Times and Standard to The 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.

21st century

The Times of India is published by the media group Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. This company, along with its other group companies, known as The Times Group, also publishes The Economic Times, Mumbai Mirror, Pune Mirror, Bangalore Mirror, Ahmedabad Mirror, the Navbharat Times (a Hindi-language daily broadsheet), the Maharashtra Times (a Marathi-language daily broadsheet) and Ei Samay (a Bengali daily).

In late 2006, Times Group acquired Vijayanand Printers Limited (VPL). VPL used to publish two Kannada newspapers, Vijay Karnataka and Usha Kiran, and an English daily, Vijay Times. Vijay Karnataka was the leader in the Kannada newspaper segment then.

In April 2008, the Chennai edition was launched. The paper's main rivals in India are Hindustan Times and The Hindu, which hold second and third position by circulation.

In Feb 2013, the Kolhapur edition was launched.

Editions

TOI's first office is opposite the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai where it was founded.

The Times of India has its markets in major cities Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Madurai, Patna, Pune, Kochi, Lucknow, Nagpur, Nashik, Goa, Mysore, Hubli, Mangalore, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Chandigarh, Raipur, Ranchi, Guwahati, Trivandrum, Aurangabad & Kolhapur.

Editorial controversies

• On 26 June 1975, a day after emergency was imposed in India, the Bombay edition of The Times of India in its obituary column carried an entry that read "D.E.M O'Cracy beloved husband of T.Ruth, father of L.I.Bertie, brother of Faith, Hope and Justica expired on 26 June".

• In 1998, the summary dismissal of then editor H.K. Dua was attributed to his pursuit of an independent editorial policy that did not suit the interests of the promoters of the group. A complaint was filed by People's Union for Civil Liberties in this matter with Press Council of India. The PCI censured The Times of India.^{[citation needed]}

• On 6 July 2012, The Times of India published an article with the title "Mauritius offers India 2 islands in effort to preserve tax treaty". According to this article, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mauritius Arvin Boolell, who was on an official visit to India during this period, stated that Mauritius was willing to cede its Outer island, that is the Agaléga Islands, to the Government of India in exchange for the maintenance of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement between India and Mauritius. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mauritius later denied the claims of handing over the Agaléga Islands to India. He also denied that he had named the Agaléga Islands in his conversation with the journalist of The Times of India and pointed out that the TOI had "a hidden agenda" as it was not the first time that TOI had done this. The Minister claims that he talked to the reporter who wrote the article and that he has "apologized", following the publication of this article. The High Commission of Mauritius in India issued a statement and explained that "this information is erroneous, false and malicious": "Never was the issue of Agaléga raised either on a stand-alone basis or as part of the double-tax avoidance agreement between India and Mauritius". He explained that the Mauritian Minister has granted several interviews to the Indian press and he at no time discussed the issue of Agaléga. The TOI published another article on 6 July 2012 with the title "Minister clarifies Mauritius island offer" and mentioned that it had knowledge about an earlier proposal about the Agaléga Islands and had therefore put a question on the two islands to which the minister had responded. However the TOI did not mention that the offer of Agaléga islands was denied by the Government of Mauritius.

Mobile application

TOI launched their mobile application on 30 May, and they were the one of the first to do so. The app is available in iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Windows Phone.

Times Group Network

Zigwheels: ZigWheels brings to its visitors reviews, road tests, technology, tools and tips, as well as special features on cars and bikes. It features easy-to-use widgets such as the new car & bike prices, Resale value of used cars, information on dealerships across cities and best deals. It has emerged as a hassle free platform for buyers as well as car and bike enthusiasts looking for new car search as per budget or make, latest news in the industry or hot launches, and exclusive previews and videos.

Speaking Tree: Speaking Tree.in is the India's largest online spiritual network that offers one on one interaction between spiritual masters and seekers. With over 100 acclaimed masters including Deepak Chopra, Jaggi Vasudev and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar the site encourages spiritual conversations among users across multiple forums.

Healthmeup.com: HealthMeUp covers modern day health concerns like diet and fitness, workouts, weight loss advice, healthy living tips, and even low-fat, quick and easy recipes.

Notable employees

• Vineet jain, MD, current Chairperson
• Samir Jain, Vice-Chairman & Publisher
• Jug Suraiya (associate editor, columnist, "Jugular Vein," cartoonist, "Dubyaman II")
• Swaminathan Aiyar (columnist, "Swaminomics")
• R. K. Laxman ("You Said It" editorial cartoon, featuring the famous Common Man)
• Shobha De, columnist
• M J Akbar, Columnist, "The Siege Within" and former Editorial Team
• Gurcharan Das, Columnist
• Chetan Bhagat, Columnist, Sunday TOI

See also

• Aman ki Asha
• ET Now
• Navbharat Times
• Maharashtra Times
• The Economic Times
• Times Now
• Times of India's list of seven Wonders of India

Further reading

• Auletta, Ken: “Citizens Jain - Why India's Newspaper Industry is Thriving“. The New Yorker, Oct 8 2012, Pages 52 to 61.
• Hirschmann, Edwin. "An Editor Speaks for the Natives: Robert Knight in 19th Century India," Journalism Quarterly (1986) 63#2 pp 260-267

External links

• Official website (Mobile)
• The Times of India ePaper (E-Paper – Digital Replica of the newspaper)
• Times Syndication Service Content licensing and syndication wing of The Times Group.
• Citizen Reports from Hyderabad for Latest News and Updates