Talk:The Times of India

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[edit] Ownership of times of india

User:Rrjanbiah The Times of India is not owned by Indiatimes as you might think. Please take a look at this link About the Publishers. The Times Group is owned by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.

"Today, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd is India's largest media house. The Times Group is a multi-edition, multi-product, multi-media organisation, and has to its credit several leading publications. Among the publications are The Times of India, The Economic Times, Navbharat Times, Maharashtra Times, Femina and Filmfare. The Group also has interests in the entertainment and media industry in the form of Radio Mirchi, Planet M, Times Music and Times Multimedia."

So Times of India newspaper is owned by The Times Group and

The Times of India is the flagship brand of the Group. It is India's premier English daily and world’s largest circulated English broadsheet daily. It is published from ten cities across India, has a circulation of over 21,44,842 copies, and is read by over 4.42 million people.

also for Indiatimes:

"In April 2000, Times Internet Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd, was floated to handle the Group's Internet properties. Times Internet Ltd's mother brand is Indiatimes."

--kunjan1029 04:36, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Need citations for these

I removed these from the page.

Please provide any link or some citation for this bit of information below:

"The newspaper's magazine section published independent of the newspaper (separately in all there centers) but distributed with the newspaper has promoted raising speed limits, bringing the minimum age of drinking down, and openness of sexual ideas."

and these because it contradicts the 4th paragraph.

"This shift in style of reporting has helped the newspaper maintain its position as the largest selling English daily in India."

--kunjan1029 04:47, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Sensationalism

Removed this: For example in 2003 the report on Uttar Pradesh government's Taj heritage project showed a computer generated photograph of a multi story building towering above the Taj Mahal in the backdrop. This of course has to be seen in context of newspapers like Indian Express, which thrive on sensationalism and taking potshots.

Firstly, this hardly constituted sensationalism since the image is an artistic rendering of how Taj Mahal would look if the Mayavati Govt had approved the construction of a corridor behind the Taj Mahal. The infamous idea has been shelved and the project is known as the [Taj Corridor Scam]. BTW, the Mayavati Govt fell because of this, so its hardly sensationalism. pamri 12:58, 2004 Nov 3 (UTC)

Reverting this edit with slight modifications. The ambani breakup story is still valid as an example of criticism against ToI, sensational or not, irrespective of the truth of the matter. Simply because, the story failed to provide names or any other information about them (obviously because of libel concerns) although it was a front page story and failed to follow up on the story even after the fallout became public. Sensationalism also refers to news which sacrifices facts/truth for attention-grabbing headlines and this, IMO is a good example. pamri 13:11, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Editions

Is the list of editions really necessary? And if so, do they need to be links? They wouldn't seem to merit individual articles. Chick Bowen 02:03, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Regular Features

Have removed 'However, right now one can aptly call it the "Tabloid of India"' from this section. It seems incongrous with the topic of the common man and is also a personal viewpoint.

leo

[edit] 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"

[edit] Top 10 list

Whose top 10 list of best indian journalists is that. Could someone either mention the source. If its personal opinion then I think its should be rewritten. User: Aniket ray

[edit] The myth of The Times of India

Fortunately or unfortunately, The Times of India incites passions by the journalistic community in India, primarily those in competition, who can't stomach the success of The Times of India and also the group in general. The successes are most definitely due to a marketing focus, but they can hardly be termed as management interference. The owner is also the defacto publisher. Who are we as third parties to pass judgement on what style he chooses to run the paper.

To all those people reading/editing this article and the people who are not aware of this background, please be aware of all the negative hyperbole that is posted under the guise of neutral observations.

User: madgeek

[edit] NPOV/Loaded language in criticism section

Someone more familiar with India's political landscape and media culture should address the Criticisms section for POV issues. For example, the last paragraph's assertions about its being a "Pro-Establishment paper" and a supporter of government must either be attributed or removed. Who is to say that "its whole-hearted approval of Indira Gandhi's excessive repression measures during the internal Emergency in the 1970s is not lost on political observers?" Perhaps the person who added these comments feels that they are self-evidently true, but I can assure you that they are not from my vantage point in the US. Citations are sorely needed. Unfortunately, I'm not qualified to deal with these issues. But somebody should. Tcatts 14:00, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Criticisms Section

Much of the the criticism section is opinion based on bad facts. for.eg. 'medianet' refered in the article is used to sell space in the life style supplements and not the main paper. A fine line, but a line nonetheless. Something an impartial oberver will point out. Which leads one to think that the whole section is motivated...

[edit] libertarian?

The infobox says its political stance is "libertarian", but none of the description in the article body supports that, and it's also not in keeping with anything I know about it. I've heard it described as "centrist" and "pro-establishment", and in recent years as "tabloid", but I haven't heard it described as "libertarian". --Delirium 19:26, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The Times Of India is an excellent paper

1.Jug Suraiya[Jugular Vein], Swaminathan S. Anklesria[ Swaminomics] , Rashmee Roshan Lal[View from London] & Chidananda Rajghatta [[1]]are amongst its most popular columnists.Cartoons by Jug Suraiya&Neelabh[Dubyaman II] and Ajit Ninan[ Just Like That] are far sharper than RK Laxman's[Common Man]which too are wittier.Rajat Pandit writes on Indian defence matters & on foreign affairs.

2.The Times of India has been called the treasure island of scholarly body of work on international relations.[[2]]

Kushwah 11:20, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Answer to that excellency Tag

Out of that treasure island they they wack their brains to publish crap front page news like 'Madhya Pradesh banning vibrating Condoms'(20 June 2007-Pune edition) with pictures and often publishing drunk punks in parties (in Pune Times),and really third rate flutter creating news thrashes.They are nothing but the new czar of Yellow journalism in India.So they can better donate the above mentioned scholarly body of work on international relations to some educational institution.

its excellent-jigyasa thakur,journalism,mcu,bhopal(2007) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.2.102.149 (talk) 18:49, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Political Allegiance

The Political Allegiance Of The Times Of India is given as "Conservative". What does this term imply? There is no political party called Conservative in India.TathD 18:47, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

The term "Conservative" is given by the world press organisation as given in the citation. I believe it would refer to fiscal conservatism as well as politically supporting nationalistic issues like defense related ones. The tag of liberal with a reference that shows it as conservative is highly misleading. I am changing it back unless there is a credible authority that classifies TOI as liberal. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Abhishekmathur (talk • contribs) 01:57, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Massive Quotes

I am deleting the quotes in the criticisms section because they aren't necessary and are cluttering the page, as well they are difficult to understand. Please feel free to revert, but something had to be done. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jonwilliamsl (talk • contribs) 01:22, 3 March 2007 (UTC). -- plus it's the most liberal paper in India, so the conservative tag doesn't make sense

[edit] OUT

I have removed the following paragraphs from the Criticism section, not because I don't think they are false, but because it is unacceptable to have criticism unreferenced after at least eight months in which it has sat under a notice that it needs to be referenced. This is totally irresponsible. Wikipedia was not created for the lazy, irresponsible, casual blatherings of some editor somewhere. It was created for responsible descriptions of the subject of each article. Part of those responsible descriptions are responsible criticisms. Neither I nor anybody else can tell what's responsble and what isn't unless we know the sources. Someone who knows of the sources or who can redo the criticism section, please do so.

These are the paragraphs:

Recently, however, it is claimed that the newspaper's focus has shifted from journalistic excellence to tabloid-style pizazz bordering on yellow journalism. Its reputation has taken such a plunge that The Times of India, abbreviated as TOI, has been labeled as the TOI-let paper in online articles and blogs. Blogs have also exposed instances of plagiarism in the paper, for example The newspaper has at times been panned for its unabashed promotion of in-house brands owned by its parent company, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd, (such as Femina, Radio Mirchi, Planet M, Times Music).

However, the city supplements issued with the newspaper is one of the major sources for most of its controversies. The supplement usually features some games, jokes, a fortune teller and television guide but, the focus and coverage towards glamour, fashion, life style and filmy issues contributes more than 75% of the entire supplement.

The newspaper has also been accused of overly-sensationalizing news stories. An infamous example being the Rift in powerful biz family article, which detailed a rift within the Ambani family. Interestingly, the newspaper was the first to break the news six months before the feud became public knowledge. One recent headline was about the impending marriage of two of India's best-known and best-loved actors Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai. The newspaper has also drawn flak for its' excessive hype over its' own stories, and very often, its' own agenda.

Though the newspaper has traditionally tried to portray an image of political neutrality, it has been by and large viewed as a pro-establishment paper. It tends to vary in its support between the BJP and Congress Party, depending on who holds the reins of the Central Government. Its whole-hearted approval of Indira Gandhi's repressive measures during the internal Emergency in the 1970s is not lost on political observers. Since the 1980s and early 1990s, the newspaper has consistently produced some of the country's finest journalists. Most of these journalists tend to move to other publications soon after.

Noroton 00:03, 14 July 2007 (UTC) (self edit, removed some capitalization in my comments Noroton 00:47, 17 July 2007 (UTC))

[edit] YELLOW JOURNALISM

for people like us there is something yellow journalism do exists and few things only serves this form and they are said to be conservative or something else,but in real they should be supported and admired for their such contribution. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.2.102.149 (talk) 18:54, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cover price

What is the cover price? It isn't mentioned in the infobox Tarcus (talk) 10:00, 15 May 2008 (UTC)