Team-BHP - Do you find TOI offensive/embarassing?

download2live - while TOI is not exactly a tabloid (tabloids are Wild Wild West), i prefer to call it a "pseudo-newspaper" or a product of pseudo-journalism.

As an aside, really surprised to see a whopping 25% of tbhpians holiding TOI in high esteem (as of post#75).

Maybe there is something good about TOI after all, which the majority is clearly missing ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by WindRide (Post 2011026)

As an aside, really surprised to see a whopping 25% of tbhpians holiding TOI in high esteem (as of post#75).

Hold this poll outside T-Bhp.
the results will be exactly the opposite.:D

Quote:

Originally Posted by WindRide (Post 2011026)

Maybe there is something good about TOI after all, which the majority is clearly missing ;)

I guess it's a kind of learning curve.
People start with a newspaper which is more of entertainment and then graduate to more serious stuff.

PS:Some never graduate:)

Without Newspaper, its difficult for me to live. In the village where I born and braught up, only regional langauge paper was available. Slowly we started getting Indian Express (New Indian Express, or what ever) and The Hindu. Hindu was comparatively good but has less regional coverage. But that good old Hindu is no where now. The printing style and things are changed along with the news coverage they have.

In terms of the printing and style, I prefer TOI at Bangalore. When I was in Chennai, Hindu was the prefered News Paper.

For the Poll, I agree that TOI is quiet embarassing at times. The Speaking Tree is good, but unnecessary charge of Rs.1.5/. The same is for The Crest Edition, it is charged at Rs.6/. Last week it was a Tupperware edition.

Anyway with TOI, I am able to satisfy my 3year old kid's demand of a "paper plain" every now and then.

Thanks
Rajesh

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lightening-Fast (Post 2011057)

I guess e-paper Sign-in was the link for the online edition. Now when i click on this i get a login page. looks like its a paid service now. Anyone else noticed this??

If your external IP Address through which you are accessing this site is from outside India (happens in many MNC's) it will ask you for login and purchasing subscription. If you are accessing from any of the local ISP's (Say from your house broadband) it will open without login.

Quote:

Originally Posted by humans (Post 2011210)

Thanks humans. Thats what i thought too. My wife is able to access the same link without any problems from her office. I would prefer the hard copy than an online version at home :)

TOI has an identity crisis. Are they a tabloid or a newspaper? I sometimes think Bangalore Mirror which atleast looks like a tabloid behaves like a newspaper.

I used to read Sun, Daily Mirror in the UK. Main reason being they used to be left in the Tube trains and I was like wow. So much on gossip, Page 3 model, lots on sports, WAGs, starlets, sensationalizing even the most trivial of news. I almost see no difference between that and TOI.

I still think TOI's business strategy is very good and they have come to be No. 1 because of the way they have done it. The newspaper wallahs make more commission on TOI. Also as circulation increases, more and more ads come on TOI, more people will be attracted towards it.

I think TOI has always been bold in its content. And i am only talking about the supplements. Its not that people find uneasy contents off late. I was in Delhi 10 years ago and Delhi times at that time carried content that will put todays content to shame. And it was the undisputed leader in Delhi at that time. So i guess this strategy sells and it works for them

I loved the Hindu. But since last 12 years I have moved out of Hindu domain. It's TOI.
Need something to look at while sipping morning protinex.
I intend to change it from this month end with the pictures becoming an embarrasment. My daughter is beginning to know things around.
The most embarrasing moment came when I was in Florida in 2002.
I opened the online edition of TOI before winding up work in office. My friend and client who was winding up work, while saying bye to me, looked at my screen and joked loudly, "MX6 is surfing porn".
Immediately, 4 - 5 of the clients came running to my cubicle to pull my leg further. Red faced I told them, "It's our national news paper", and they burst out laughing.

I grew up reading Hindu. After shifting to Bangalore, have been reading ToI for 8 years. Last 1 year or so, I am reading DH.

My take on the above three is this.

ToI
- Excellent format, font, graphics.
- Highly objective editorial, most unbiased.
- Speaking tree, Thought for the day are very good columns.
- Very less political lineage.
- Relavant local news (in Bangalore).
- Lots of sleaze.

Hindu
- Excellent English, reading Hindu improves one's English.
- No sleaze.
- News reported with subjective judgemental analysis. Not objective. Not reported 'as is'.
- Very high political lineage.
- Very less local news (in Bangalore).

DH
- Somewhere in the middle between ToI and Hindu.
- Off late they have begun to mimic ToI.
- Relevant local news.
- Sleaze is present, in small quantities.

In my office, DNA is available. I have started reading this also now. Looks to be good.

Yes, I agree with the thread title. I find ToI offensive due to the sleaze.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbraj (Post 2012635)

Hindu
...
- Very high political lineage.
...

:OT To which Political party/ideology does The Hindu lean towards in TN & in Centre?

I know 'Frontline' (from the same publication house) is almost a Commie mouthpiece.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WindRide (Post 2012739)

:OT To which Political party/ideology does The Hindu lean towards in TN & in Centre?

I know 'Frontline' (from the same publication house) is almost a Commie mouthpiece.

I read Hindu and find it pretty much biased towards Commies and Congress. Times group guys seems to be in big fight with the CWG head. Was pretty bad yesterday on some talk show on Times Now.

oh my! i didnt realise that people here are so conservative.

I personally dont find anything wrong with a little glamour. Kids today are exposed to far more than what we assume. And parents who think that a channel lock on the TV is enough to protect the kids from this sort of stuff are just being naive. I saw my 6 year old niece show my sister how to open the channel locks! :)

My gripe with ToI is that they have sold out to the PR groups of various companies and this comes out in the form of bias in their reporting.

To quote an example,as per DGCA records, Kingfisher Airlines had 16 life-threatening incidents the past year, ranging from runway run-off's to tailstrikes and onboard fires due to carrying illegal chemicals in cargo: the highest among all airlines in India. This should make them one of the least safe airlines out there. But None of these incidents were reported. But the smallest incident like a 30 minute delay on air india gets on the front page!

This news item appeared on Deccan Herald print edition. On Wednesday, August 4, 2010, page 13, under a section titled What women want. News item was supplemented with a provocative picture to attract attention.

You can take a call whether such reporting is good or bad. It is not glamour by any stretch of my imagination.