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The Times of India

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The Times of India (TOI) is an Indian

English-language daily newspaper owned
by The Times Group. It is the third-largest
newspaper in India by circulation and the
second-largest selling English-language
daily in the world[2][3][4][5] according to
Audit Bureau of Circulations (India).[1][6] It
is the oldest English-language newspaper
in India still in circulation, albeit under
different names since its first edition
published in 1838.[7] It is also the second-
oldest Indian newspaper still in circulation
after the Bombay Samachar.
 The Times of India

20 August 2013 front page of the Kolkata

edition of The Times of India
Type Daily newspaper

Format Broadsheet

Owner(s) The Times Group

Publisher Bennett, Coleman &

Co. Ltd.

Editor-in-chief Jaideep Bose

Founded 3 November 1838

Language English

Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra,

 India
Country India

Circulation 2,640,770 daily[1] (as

of January–June
2019)

Sister newspapers The Economic Times

Navbharat Times
Maharashtra Times
Ei Samay
Mumbai Mirror
Bhubaneswar Times

ISSN 0971-8257
OCLC number 23379369
Website timesofindia.com

Media of India
List of newspapers

Near the beginning of the 20th century,

Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, called
The Times of India "the leading paper in
Asia".[8][9] In 1991, the BBC ranked The
Times of India among the world's six best
newspapers.[10][11]

It is owned and published by Bennett,

Coleman & Co. Ltd. (B.C.C.L.), which is
owned by the Sahu Jain family. In the
Brand Trust Report 2012, The Times of
India was ranked 88th among India's most-
trusted brands. In 2017, however, the
newspaper was ranked 355th.[12]

History

Times of India Buildings, ca. 1898

Beginnings …

The Times of India issued its first edition

on 3 November 1838 as The Bombay
Times and Journal of Commerce.[13][14]
The paper published Wednesdays and
Saturdays under the direction of
Raobahadur Narayan Dinanath Velkar, a
Maharashtrian Reformist, and contained
news from Britain and the world, as well as
the Indian Subcontinent. J.E. Brennan was
its first editor.[15][16] In 1850, it began to
publish daily editions.
In 1860, editor Robert Knight (1825–1892)
bought the Indian shareholders' interests,
merged with 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 and led
the paper to national prominence.[17][18] In
the 19th century, this newspaper company
employed more than 800 people and had a
sizeable circulation in India and Europe.

Bennett and Coleman ownership …

Subsequently, The Times of India saw its

ownership change several times until 1892
when an English journalist named Thomas
Jewell Bennett along with Frank Morris
Coleman (who later drowned in the 1915
sinking of the SS Persia) acquired the
newspaper through their new joint stock
company, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.

Dalmiya ownership …

Sir Stanley Reed edited The Times of India

from 1907 until 1924 and received
correspondence from the major figures of
India such as Mahatma Gandhi. In all he
lived in India for fifty years. He was
respected in the United Kingdom as an
expert on Indian current affairs. He
christened Jaipur as "the Pink City of
India".

Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd was sold to

sugar magnate Ramkrishna Dalmia of the
then-famous industrial family, the
Dalmiyas, for ₹20 million (US$280,000) in
1946, as India was becoming independent
and the British owners were leaving.[19] In
1955 the Vivian Bose Commission of
Inquiry found that Ramkrishna Dalmia, in
1947, had engineered the acquisition of the
media giant Bennett Coleman & Co. by
transferring money from a bank and an
insurance company of which he was the
Chairman. In the court case that followed,
Ramkrishna Dalmia was sentenced to two
years in Tihar Jail after having been
convicted of embezzlement and fraud.[5]

But for most of the jail term he managed

to spend in hospital. Upon his release, his
son-in-law, Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain, to
whom he had entrusted the running of
Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. rebuffed his
efforts to resume command of the
company.[5]

Jain family (Shanti Prasad Jain) …

In the early 1960s, Shanti Prasad Jain was

imprisoned on charges of selling newsprint
on the black market.[20] And based on the
Vivian Bose Commission's earlier report
which found wrongdoings of the Dalmia –
Jain group, that included specific charges
against Shanti Prasad Jain, the
Government of India filed a petition to
restrain and remove the management of
Bennett, Coleman and Company. Based on
the pleading, Justice directed the
Government to assume control of the
newspaper which resulted in replacing half
of the directors and appointing a Bombay
(now Mumbai) High Court judge as the
Chairman.[21]

Under the Government of India …

The Times of India on a 1988 stamp

The Times of India on a 2013 stamp

Following the Vivian Bose Commission
report indicating serious wrongdoings of
the Dalmia–Jain group, on 28 August 1969,
the Bombay High Court, under Justice J. L.
Nain, passed an interim order to disband
the existing board of Bennett Coleman and
to constitute a new board under the
Government. The bench ruled that "Under
these circumstances, the best thing would
be to pass such orders on the assumption
that the allegations made by the
petitioners that the affairs of the company
were being conducted in a manner
prejudicial to public interest and to the
interests of the Company are correct".[22]
Following that order, Shanti Prasad Jain
ceased to be a director and the company
ran with new directors on board, appointed
by the Government of India, with the
exception of a lone stenographer of the
Jains. Curiously, the court appointed D K
Kunte as Chairman of the Board. Kunte
had no prior business experience and was
also an opposition member of the Lok
Sabha.
Back to the Jain family …

In 1976, during the Emergency in India, the

Government transferred ownership of the
newspaper back to Ashok Kumar Jain
(Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain's son,
Ramkrishna Dalmia's grandson and the
father of Samir Jain and Vineet Jain).[23]
The Jains too often landed themselves in
various money laundering scams and
Ashok Kumar Jain had to flee the country
when the Enforcement Directorate pursued
his case strongly in 1998 for alleged
violations of illegal transfer of funds (to
the tune of US$1.25 million) to an
overseas account in
Switzerland.[24][25][26][27]

During the Emergency …

On 26 June 1975, the day after India

declared a state of emergency, the
Bombay edition of The Times of India
carried an entry in its obituary column that
read "D.E.M. O'Cracy, beloved husband of
T.Ruth, father of L.I.Bertie, brother of Faith,
Hope and Justice expired on 25 June".[28]
The move was a critique of Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi's 21-month state of
emergency, which is now widely known as
"the Emergency" and seen by many as a
roundly authoritarian era of Indian
government.[29][30]

The Times in the 21st century …

In late 2006, Times Group acquired

Vijayanand Printers Limited (VPL). VPL
previously published 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.[31]

The paper launched a Chennai edition, 12

April 2008.[32] It launched a Kolhapur
edition, February 2013.

TOIFA Awards …

Introduced in 2013[33] and awarded for the

second time in 2016,[34] "The Times of
India Film Awards" or the "TOIFA" is an
award for the work in Film Industry
decided by a global public vote on the
nomination categories.[35]

Editions and publications

TOI's first office is opposite the Chhatrapati Shivaji

Terminus in Mumbai where it was founded.[14]
The Times of India is published by the
media group Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.
The company, along with its other group of
companies, known as The Times Group,
also publishes Ahmedabad Mirror;
Bangalore Mirror; Bangalore Times, Delhi
Times; The Economic Times; ET Panache
(Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru on Monday to
Friday, and as Times of India ET Panache in
Pune and Chennai, every Saturday) Ei
Samay, (a Bengali daily); the Maharashtra
Times, (a Marathi-language daily
broadsheet); Mumbai Mirror; the Navbharat
Times, (a Hindi-language daily
broadsheet); and Pune Mirror.

The Times of India has its markets in major

cities such as Mumbai,[36] Ahmedabad,
Allahabad, Aurangabad, Bangalore, Bhopal,
Bhubaneswar, Calicut, Chandigarh,
Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Guwahati,
Hubli, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kochi,
Kolhapur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Madurai,
Mangalore, Mysore, Nagpur, Nashik,
Panaji, Patna, Puducherry, Pune, Raipur,
Ranchi, Surat, Trichy, Trivandrum, Varanasi,
Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam.

Times Group Network

Speaking Tree: A spiritual network
intended to allow spiritual seekers to
link spiritual seekers with established
practitioners.[37]
Healthmeup: A health, diet, and fitness
website.[38]
Cricbuzz: In November 2014, Times
Internet acquired Cricbuzz, a website
 focused on cricket news.[39]

Controversies
This article or section appears to be slanted
towards recent events. Learn more

Paid news …

The Times of India has been criticized for

being the first to institutionalize the
practice of paid news in India, where
politicians, businessmen, corporations and
celebrities can pay the newspaper and its
journalists would carry the desired news
for the payer.[5][40][41] The newspaper
offers prominence with which the paid
news is placed and the page on which it is
displayed based on the amount of the
payment. According to this practice, a
payment plan assures a news feature and
ensures positive coverage to the payer.[5]
In 2005, The Times of India began the
practice of "private treaties", also called as
"brand capital", where new companies,
individuals or movies seeking mass
coverage and public relations, major
brands and organizations were offered
sustained positive coverage and plugs in
its news columns in exchange for shares
or other forms of financial obligations to
Bennett, Coleman & Company, Ltd.
(B.C.C.L.) – the owners of The Times of
India.[5][40] The B.C.C.L., with its "private
treaties" program, acquired stakes in 350
companies and generated 15% of its
revenues by 2012, according to a critical
article in The New Yorker. The "paid news"
and "private treaties" practice started by
The Times of India has since been adopted
by The Hindustan Times group, the India
Today group, the Outlook group, and other
major media groups in India including
Indian television channels.[5][42] This
division of the company was later
renamed Brand Capital and has contracts
in place with many companies in diverse
sectors.

The "paid news" and "private treaties" blur

the lines between content and advertising,
with the favorable coverage written by the
staff reporters on the payroll of The Times
of India.[5] The newspaper has defended
its practice in 2012 by stating that it
includes a note of disclosure to the reader
– though in a small font – that its contents
are "advertorial, entertainment promotional
feature", that they are doing this to
generate revenues just like "all newspapers
in the world do advertorials" according to
The Times of India owners.[5][40] According
to Maya Ranganathan, this overlap in the
function of a journalist to also act as a
marketing and advertisement revenue
seeker for the newspaper raises conflict of
interest questions, a problem that has
morphed into ever-larger scale in India and
recognized by India's SEBI authority in July
2009.[40]

Under an ad sales initiative called

Medianet, if a large company or Bollywood
studio sponsored a news-worthy event, the
event would be covered by the Times of
India but the name of the company or
studio that sponsored it will not be
mentioned in the paper unless they paid
the Times of India for advertising. In 2010,
a report by a subcommittee of India's
Press Council found that Medianet's paid
news strategy had spread to a large
number of newspapers and more than five
hundred television channels.[5][43]

Critics state that the company's paid news

and private treaties skew its coverage and
shield its newspaper advertisers from
scrutiny. The Hoot, a media criticism
website, has pointed out that when an
elevator in a 19-storey luxury apartment
complex in Bangalore crashed killing two
workers and injuring seven, all the English
language and Kannada language
newspapers with the exception of the
Times of India called out the name of the
construction company, Sobha Developers,
which was a private-treaty partner. An
article titled "reaping gold through bt
cotton," which first appeared in the Nagpur
edition of the Times of India in 2008,
reappeared unchanged in 2011, this time
with a small print alert that the article was
a "marketing feature". In both cases, the
article was factually incorrect and made
false claims about the success of
Monsanto's genetically modified cotton.
According to a critical article published in
the Indian magazine The Caravan, when the
Honda Motors plant in Gurgaon
experienced an eight-month-long conflict
between management and non-unionized
workers over wages and work conditions
in 2005, the Times of India covered the
concerns of Honda and the harm done to
India's investment climate and largely
ignored the issues raised by workers.[5]
Vineet Jain, Managing Director of B.C.C.L.,
has insisted that a wall does exist
between sales and the newsroom, and that
the paper does not give favorable
coverage to the company's business
partners. "Our editors don’t know who we
have," Jain said, although he later
acknowledged that all private-treaty
clients are listed on the company's Web
site.[5] Ravindra Dhariwal, the former CEO
of B.C.C.L. had defended private treaties in
a 2010 interview with the magazine
Outlook and claims that the partners in the
private treaties sign contracts where they
agree to clauses that they will not receive
any favorable editorial coverage.

Anti-competitive Behavior …

There have been claims that The Times of

India would strike deals with advertisers
only if they removed their advertisements
from other competitor newspapers.[5]

The Times of India is also embroiled in an

active lawsuit against the Financial Times.
In 1993, when the Financial Times was
preparing to enter the Indian market, Samir
Jain the Vice-Chairman of B.C.C.L.
registered the term "Financial Times" as a
trademark of his company and declared it
his intellectual property in an attempt to
stymie the Financial Times and prevent
them from competing with the Economic
Times which is owned by B.C.C.L.[5]

In 1994, when the Hindustan Times was

the top-selling paper in New Delhi, the
Times of India slashed their prices by a
third, to one and a half rupees after having
built up their ads sales force in preparation
for the price drop to make up for the lost
circulation revenue. By 1998, the Hindustan
Times had dropped to second place in
Delhi. The Times of India took a similar
strategy in Bangalore where they dropped
the price to one rupee despite protests
from Siddharth Varadarajan, one of the
editors of the newspaper at the time, who
called the strategy "predatory pricing".[5]

Cobrapost Sting Operation …

In 2018, Vineet Jain, Managing Director of
B.C.C.L., and Sanjeev Shah, executive
president of B.C.C.L., were caught on
camera as part of an undercover sting
operation by Cobrapost agreeing to
promote Hindutva content through the
group's many media properties for a
proposed spend of ₹500 crore, some of
which the client said could only be paid
with black money.[44] B.C.C.L. has
responded to the sting claiming that the
video that was released by Cobrapost was
incomplete and doctored and that Vineet
Jain was engaged in a counter-sting of his
own to expose the undercover reporter
during the filming of the video.[45]

Notable employees
Sham Lal, Editor and Scholar
Girilal Jain, Editor and Scholar
Samir Jain, Vice-Chairman

Publisher

Vineet Jain, MD
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)
M J Akbar, Columnist, "The Siege Within"
and former Editorial Team
Chetan Bhagat, Columnist, Sunday TOI
Shashi Tharoor, Columnist of "Shashi on
Sunday"
 V. D. Trivadi, Humorist
Twinkle Khanna, Columnist of "Mrs.
Funnybones"

References
1. "Highest Circulated Daily Newspapers
(language wise)" (PDF). Audit Bureau
of Circulations. Retrieved 5 January
2019.
2. C. S. Natarajan (13 February 2018).
National Words: A Solution to the
National Language Problem of India .
Notion Press. pp. 189–. ISBN 978-1-
948147-14-9.
3. Arnold P. Kaminsky; Roger D. Long,
Ph.D. (23 September 2011). India
Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the
Republic [2 volumes]: An Encyclopedia
of Life in the Republic . ABC-CLIO.
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4. "It's the best of Times" . Rick
Westhead. The Star. 5 February 2010.
Retrieved 20 April 2018.
5. "Citizens Jain Why India's newspaper
industry is thriving" . Ken Auletta. New
Yorker. 8 October 2012. Retrieved
20 April 2018.
6. "National Newspapers Total
Circulation" . International Federation
of Audit Bureaux of Circulations
(IFABC). 2011. Retrieved 10 November
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7. S. B. Bhattacherje (1 May 2009).
Encyclopaedia of Indian Events &
Dates . Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
p. A126. ISBN 978-81-207-4074-7.
Retrieved 23 June 2016.
8. Sangita P. Menon Malhan (25 July
2013). The TOI Story . HarperCollins
Publishers India. pp. 1945–. ISBN 978-
93-5029-664-6. Retrieved 22 July
2017.
 9. Jaideep Bose (23 April 2013). "A daily
in the life of India" . Times of India.
Retrieved 23 July 2017.
10. C. V. Baxi; Ajit Prasad (2005).
Corporate Social Responsibility:
Concepts and Cases : the Indian
Experience . Excel Books India.
pp. 167–. ISBN 978-81-7446-449-1.
Retrieved 26 June 2016.
11. Vir Bala Aggarwal; V. S. Gupta (1
January 2001). Handbook of
Journalism and Mass
Communication . Concept Publishing
Company. pp. 128–. ISBN 978-81-
7022-880-6. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
12. "The Brand Trust Report, India Study
2017" . Trust Research Advisory.
Retrieved 8 January 2018.
13. "The Times of India" . Encyclopædia
Britannica. 15 April 2013. Retrieved
10 November 2014.
14. "The Times of India turns the Times of
Colour" . Televisionpoint.com. 30 April
2006. Archived from the original on
12 October 2007. Retrieved
16 October 2007.
15. Asima Ranjan Parhi (2008). Indian
English Through Newspapers .
Concept Publishing Company.
pp. 32–. ISBN 978-81-8069-507-0.
16. Rangaswami Parthasarathy (1989).
Journalism in India: from the earliest
times to the present day . Sterling
Publishers. p. 273. Retrieved 26 June
2016.
17. Hirschmann, Edwin (2008). Robert
Knight: Reforming Editor in Victorian
India. Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0-19-569622-6.
18. Kartar Lalvani (10 March 2016). The
Making of India: The Untold Story of
British Enterprise . Bloomsbury
Publishing. pp. 383–. ISBN 978-1-
4729-2484-1. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
19. Asha Kasbekar (January 2006). Pop
Culture India!: Media, Arts, and
Lifestyle . ABC-CLIO. pp. 112–.
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20. "Indian Millionaires arrested" . Reuter
(The Herald (Glasgow)), 5 May 1964.
Retrieved 6 May 2015.
21. Khandekar, Vanita Kohli (9 November
2013). The Indian Media Business.
Mumbai: SAGE Publications.
ISBN 978-8132113560.
22. P. Menon Malhan, Sangita (2 August
2013). THE TOI STORY: How A
Newspaper Changed The Rules Of The
Games . Noida: HarperCollins
Publishers India. p. 212.
ISBN 9789350296646. Retrieved
3 May 2015.
23. Subramanian, Samanth (1 December
2012). "Supreme Being: How Samir
Jain created the modern Indian
newspaper industry" . The Caravan.
Retrieved 10 November 2014.
24. "Trying times: Editorial changes in The
Times of India raise disturbing
questions" . India Today. 7 July 1997.
Retrieved 10 November 2014.
25. "Ashok Jain arrested" . The Indian
Express. 4 July 1998. Retrieved
18 May 2013.
26. Mahalingam, Sudha (18–31 July
1998). "Ashok Jain is arrested by the
Enforcement Directorate" . Frontline.
ISSN 0970-1710 . Retrieved
10 November 2014.
27. "A newspaper scandal: Editorial
changes in The Times of India raise
disturbing questions" . Frontline. 6–19
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28. Austin, Granville (1999). Working a
democratic constitution: the Indian
experience . Oxford University Press.
p. 295. ISBN 978-0195648881.
29. "New book flays Indira Gandhi's
decision to impose Emergency" . IBN
Live News. 30 May 2011. Retrieved
10 November 2014.
30. Desai, Akshayakumar Ramanlal (17
November 1986). Violation of
Democratic Rights in India . Bombay:
Popular Prakashan. p. 208. ISBN 978-
0861321308. Retrieved 10 November
2014.
31. "Times Group acquires Vijayanand
Printers" . The Times of India. 15 June
2006. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
32. "TN CM launches Chennai edition of
Times of India" . The Economic Times.
13 April 2008. Retrieved 10 November
2014.
33. "TOIFA 2013 nominations" . The Times
of India. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
34. "TOIFA 2016: 'Bajirao Mastani' Bags 6
Awards, Celebs Have a Rocking
Night" . India-West. 21 March 2016.
Archived from the original on 22 May
2016. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
35. "About TOI Film Awards 2016" .
timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
Retrieved 17 July 2016.
36. "Online Mumbai Newspaper" . Mid
Day. 24 April 2014.
37. "Times Internet launches Hindi version
of 'Speaking Tree' " . Exchange4Media.
17 April 2014. Retrieved 1 November
2017.
38. Pahwa, Nikhil (17 March 2011).
"Indiatimes Launches Health Blog –
HealthMeUp" . Medianama. Retrieved
1 November 2017.
39. "Times Internet acquires cricbuzz" .
The Times of India. Retrieved
15 August 2015.
40. Usha M. Rodrigues; Maya
Ranganathan (2014). "Paid News:
Cocktail of Media, Business and
Politics". Indian News Media: From
Observer to Participant . SAGE
Publications. pp. 121–127. ISBN 978-
93-5150-158-9.
41. Mudgal, Vipul (2015). "News for Sale:
'Paid News', Media Ethics, and India's
Democratic Public Sphere". Media
Ethics and Justice in the Age of
Globalization. London: Palgrave
Macmillan. pp. 100–120.
doi:10.1057/9781137498267_6 .
ISBN 978-1-349-50520-3.
42. "50 Powerful People" . IndiaToday.
43. Usha M. Rodrigues; Maya
Ranganathan (2014). "Paid News:
Cocktail of Media, Business and
Politics". Indian News Media: From
Observer to Participant . SAGE
Publications. pp. 123–125. ISBN 978-
93-5150-158-9.
44. "At the Times Group, Cobrapost Sting
Shows How Cash is King" . The Wire.
45. "Times Group Says Vineet Jain Was
Conducting 'Reverse Sting' on
Cobrapost" . The Wire.
Further reading
Auletta, Ken: "Citizens Jain – Why India's
Newspaper Industry is Thriving". The
New Yorker, 8 October 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
Merrill, John C. and Harold A. Fisher. The
world's great dailies: profiles of fifty
newspapers (1980) pp. 330–33
 Menon Malhan, Sangita P. The TOI Story:
How a Newspaper Changed the Rules of
the Game (2013) HarperCollins India

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