The June 26, 2010 front page of the Mumbai edition of The Times of India |
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. |
| Publisher | The Times Group |
| Editor-in-chief | Jaideep Bose |
| Associate editor | Jug Suraiya |
| Founded | 3 November 1838 |
| Political alignment | Conservative |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Times House 7 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi, Delhi 110002 |
| Circulation | 3,146,000 daily |
| Sister newspapers | The Economic Times Navbharat Times |
| OCLC number | 23379369 |
| Official website | timesofindia.indiatimes.com |
The Times of India (TOI) is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. TOI has the largest circulation among all English-language newspaper in the world, across all formats (broadsheet, tabloid, compact, Berliner and online).[1][2] It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. which is owned by the Sahu Jain family.
In the year 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 newspaper, placing it as the 8th largest selling newspaper in any language in the world.[3] According to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2010, the Times of India is the most widely read English newspaper in India with a readership of 70.35 lakhs (7.035 million). This ranks the Times of India as the top English newspaper in India by readership.[4] According to ComScore, Indiatimes (and not TOI online) is the world's most-visited newspaper website with 159 million page views in May 2009, ahead of the New York Times, The Sun, Washington Post, Daily Mail and USA Today websites .
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The Times Of India was founded on 3 November 1838 as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce In Mumbai,[5] during the 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. In the 19th century, this newspaper company employed more than 800 people and had a sizable circulation in India and Europe. It was after India's independence that 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.[6]
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).
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.[7]
In January 2007, the Kannada edition was launched in Bangalore (which was stopped in March 2010) and in April 2008 the Chennai edition was launched. Their main rivals in India are The Hindu and Hindustan Times, which hold second and third position by circulation.[8]
The Times of India has its markets in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Nagpur, Jaipur, Goa, Bhopal and Nashik. The Times of India is printed in India at: Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Gurgaon, Guwahati, Hubli, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Madurai, Mangalore, Mumbai, Mysore, Nagpur, Noida, Patna, Rajkot, Ranchi, Surat, Thane, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirappalli, Vadodara, Varanasi. The Pune edition is printed in Navi Mumbai and Tiruchirappalli edition in Madurai.
The total average circulation for 2010 was 3,433,000 copies.[9]
Times of India editorial changes have raised questions about the integrity of the newspaper. In 1989, the editor of Times of India, Girilal Jain was sacked for purportedly developing pro Hindutva sympathies.[10] 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.[11] A complaint was filed by PUCL in this matter with PCI. The PCI censured The Times of India in the strongest terms, and praised Mr. H.K.Dua. (The PUCL represented by its General Secy., Dr. Y.P. Chhibbar was also a complainant in the case.[12]
The question of paid news having affected the paper has also come up with the publication of a certain news article slandering the state of Gujrat. [13] Currently, the general consensus being that the Times of India has begun to lack authenticity as a people's newspaper and is pro-Congress in its political news articles.
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