Team-BHP > Shifting gears


View Poll Results: Do you find TOI offensive/embarassing?
Yes 125 70.62%
No 42 23.73%
No Comment 10 5.65%
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Old 1st August 2010, 21:59   #46
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Wow!! interesting stuff on the TOI websites. Will visit them.

Born and bred on IE my whole life. One of the few families that used to buy IE in Mylapore, a traditional Hindu paper bastion.

Like Chetan Bhagat said in one of his novels... "He was making slow love to his Hindu paper". Very true about a lot of folks in Tamil Nadu.

Infact in my hostel I used to be the only guy who bought IE. And the irony is in my apartment complex of 210 houses, I am the only guy to get IE. Sometimes when IE arrives late, the newspaper wallah just drops TOI and goes off!!

TOI must be doing something right. Maybe they appeal to youngsters and the very old. Or do they indulge in everyman's guilty pleasure in reading about gossip and ogling starlets? How else could they have managed to catch the market.

Also they used to offer very competitive rates for ads before and brought in a lot of marketing for their newspaper. Something that IE and Hindu had to pick up later on.

IE was the only national newspaper that stood up against Indira Gandhi during the Emergency. I also remember Arun Shourie's awesome articles on IE. IE had a lot of great journalists work for it. Sadly now they are a shadow of what they used to be. I personally know a few journalists who have shifted to TOI because they pay well.

TOI is good for checking out the latest discount sales!!
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Old 1st August 2010, 22:09   #47
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TOI esp the supplement is crap, kinda soft porn with the kind of pics & articles they publish!

Stopped the TOI subscription 4 years back & moved to The Hindu, pretty happy with it!
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Old 1st August 2010, 22:35   #48
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I don't, cause I have stopped looking at it. Sometimes, I find mid-day better than TOI .
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Old 1st August 2010, 23:55   #49
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Not just the printed edition, I feel the TV news channel from their group too is on for sensationalizing - no matter what. Sic.
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Old 2nd August 2010, 01:10   #50
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Read IE, Business Standard.
Hindu: good content, but TOO far on the left. I am not a commie, sorry!
TOI: Vulgar? No. Retarded reporting? lack of content? Yes!

Few points that I'd like to make:
(1) I don't see the point of changing the newspaper exclusively because it has pictures of half-naked chicks in it. The question parents should answer is whether the pictures are detrimental to the kids, or are parents themselves too embarrassed to discuss things with kids.
(2) Also, the reality today is globalization (and thus westernization of India). By the time the kid grows up, all one can expect is a greater number of pictures of half-naked models everywhere. Why would a parent want the kid to have any moral biases against women in revealing western clothing/beachwear/bikini? 15-20 yrs down the line, in all possibility, someone who looks down upon women wearing a bikini, would be treated the same way as we treat the likes of Sri Ram Sene today.
(3) It is the right of a woman to wear whatever it is that she wants. It is also the right of others to ogle at them. The earlier the kid understands that, the better.

And about psychological impacts on kids:
(1) Kids under 8-10 yrs can hardly care.
(2) Kids between 9-16 would have some stuff to ogle when mommy and daddy aren't at home! So what? We all did that.

There are greater things to worry about. For all you know, your kid might be hooked to internet p*rn. While there isn't much wrong with it, IMHO. However, there is always the risk of the kid getting exposed to the various extreme subcategories of p*rn. Parents, spare the newspaper. Monitor what the kid is doing on the internet (including fb)

Last edited by e1t1bet : 2nd August 2010 at 01:12.
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Old 2nd August 2010, 08:25   #51
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WindRide View Post
Half-naked starlets and lingerie models in a daily newspaper does not equate to VULGAR for you?
If i need to see such pictures, i would buy a men's magazine. Not a national daily.
Quote:
Originally Posted by idea1979 View Post
One should try and visit TOI website, especially bollywood video sections. Kind of video you will come across - You will totally forget that you are actually surfing a national news paper website.
+1000. Why go to any section. Just check the home page, and you will doubt to open it again in Office.

Just curious, do we have any body to censor or having guidelines for these dailies? I know press freedom is too much, but again, this is going in the reverse direction for a while.
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Old 2nd August 2010, 08:41   #52
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ToI is horrible - I really hated it when they started using the "i" in their articles, not to mention the crap that was Pune Times. They seem to think that the IQ of readers is supposed to be < 50.
As for embarassing/offensive - I would say not really, but got fed up with the overall content/columns/articles

Switched to Indian Express a year ago, which is much better than Times in terms of content, and the city news suplement does actually have some interesting things in it than just photos of starlets, so-called celebs etc

Last edited by Abhay : 2nd August 2010 at 08:47.
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Old 2nd August 2010, 08:41   #53
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In my area TOI is giving Bangalore Mirror free everyday for some time now. Anybody read today's front page headline, news about Ms.Jolie, not sure how it is useful to us.

Last edited by Samurai : 2nd August 2010 at 09:06.
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Old 2nd August 2010, 08:52   #54
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TOI, Mumbai has become less of news and more of ads. Even the news whatever is there is not at all informative. I guess being the market leader in Mumbai has gone to their heads and the quality of the news had dopped drastically.

Earlier I used to get DNA which initially started off with 99/- for complete year, slowly they increased to 199 then 299 and now its as per the daily price. Hence had to revert back to TOI.

One thing I have observed for quite a long time is step treatment to Thane news which hardly occupy any space in the news section unless it some riot, murder, rape or something like that. TOI does carry soem news in their Sat and Sun suplements but that hardly constitute the news, its more about Hote ad, Mall ads etc. Nothin informative.
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Old 2nd August 2010, 09:01   #55
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Well i have been a TOI reader since i started treading newspapers. In the morning if i do not get to read TOI, i get totally frustrated. Well it has changed over the years but it ismoving with todays times. Still the business times page of TOI is still the most authentic page on business accross all papers.
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Old 2nd August 2010, 09:17   #56
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TOI is trash. I used to like Hindu very much but in recent years with leftist N.RAM at the helm, Hindu leans too much to the left - in fact one of my freinds calls Hindu the mouthpeace of China.

I subscribe to Hindu which though leftist, is far better than TOI.

As for business news, I actually prefer MINT and Business Line to Economic Times.

Last edited by chennai-indian : 2nd August 2010 at 09:19.
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Old 2nd August 2010, 10:15   #57
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I completely agree that TOI is indecent. I am a loyal subscriber of Hindu.
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Old 2nd August 2010, 10:39   #58
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Hindu-Pro Dmk?

Quote:
Originally Posted by chennai-indian View Post
TOI is trash. I used to like Hindu very much but in recent years with leftist N.RAM at the helm, Hindu leans too much to the left - in fact one of my freinds calls Hindu the mouthpeace of China.

I subscribe to Hindu which though leftist, is far better than TOI.

As for business news, I actually prefer MINT and Business Line to Economic Times.

Hi,
I also felt after the trouble with Jayalalitha (N ram) was hounded by the ADMK regime they were becoming a little pro DMK and were closely following Kanimozhi's events and her photos were there every second day.I infact wrote to them that they are losing their neutrality....obviously that letter never got publised and that is when i shifted to TOI.
Now i think i will go back to Hindu and Express.

cheers!
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Old 2nd August 2010, 11:57   #59
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TOI is like a thali.
They know Indians love a wholesome meal and cater to the masses.

Hindu has high standards on all informative stuff but on national/state issues they write with a propaganda of their own, not a neutral stand.

New Indian Express - For raw news. uncensored and sincere but lack in accuracy.

and regarding news channels, all are crap except DDnews.

Last edited by Daewood : 2nd August 2010 at 11:59.
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Old 2nd August 2010, 13:29   #60
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bred on TOI, and the family continued to subscribe to it. TOI was getting scandalous for my taste and absolute junk. 5 years back took a sane decision to switch to The Hindu.
Another newspaper that i have heard good things about is "Indian Express".
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