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-   -   Do you find TOI offensive/embarassing? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/86288-do-you-find-toi-offensive-embarassing-7.html)

This link says it all. I have been in Pune for last three years, almost every week I see an article which talks low about people from South, another reason I hate TOI and find it offensive!

@anilsanil: madhavan may be some hotsie-totsie down south, but he is hardly a well known face up north.

in bollywood fees are bsaed on the stars "initial" and surely a Madhavan or that fellow in Raavan cant claim to get the same kind of initial in Bollywood as they get in Madrasi films?

Surely you cant find fault with ToI for calling a spade a spade?

Whenever i visit Bangalore on work (average of twice a month), i see the Bangalore ToI supplements featuring actors I havent even heard of! :)

These papers like TOI print pics of Hillary or Obama on the front-page with some kind of pride. I dont see US newspapers printing photos of our President or PM on their front page let alone last page.

Not sure if the parent Company is based in the US.

In the International/Business news section the news is about US only.
What about other countries? I want to know what is going on in Brazil, Malaysia, Africa etc also.

I have since switched to Deccan Herald, at least they cover real issues facing the country.

I am not supporting Madhavan here, but who is TOI or for that matter anyone to decide his price is not reasonable. When you are asking a hike in your company should it be decided on the basis of your region?
Some time ago there was an article on how Ayesha Takia is becoming fat and the article ends wondering if Ayesha wants to go down South!

Anyways guess we are going off topic, I told my opinion on why I find it offensive, if you did not then good for you!

Interesting point. If you happen to see any newspapers in USA or UK, you will know what "international" means for them. At the most it will be Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. In most cases the headlines will be something like "Robby weds his sweetheart".

It surprises me to see that people here in Bangalore DO read the New Indian Express. I always go on joking around with my wife, who is a journalist there that no one reads your paper and they are just getting paid to make bhelpuri 'thonga'-s.

Having said that I find their print quality terribly bad. Its a result of the old printing machines they still use in their press.
I get most of the news papers at my home and I feel reading Hindu+Bangalore Mirror is enough.

TOI, I have no words for them. Its said that papers put a 'bit of masala' stuff to draw just a section of the crowd. But with TOI its the other way round. They try to put just a 'bit of news' in between just to be qualified as a newspaper. I find the epaper more horrible. Just see this in today's paper HERE. The headlines say something else and the story is completely different. No one edits the online pages or what?

I grew up on The Hindu, and to this day, I cling to it. The Hindu caters to most of my interests, be it literary, environmental, international or wildlife. I will swear by it anyday.

To me, TOI is crap.

Suresh.

Well, the general trend is that Bollywood rejects usually end up going down south. I can think of numerous examples and most of them can be considered 'fat' compared to established Bollywood stars. Nothing wrong with that. We welcome them all with open arms. :D

As for TOI, I shifted from Hindu to TOI a few months after TOI was launched here. I was sick of Hindu's pedantic and drab reporting and wanted a change and TOI offered a great deal at 250 bucks a year plus a free bag. Hindu was costing me 800 or more a year. Plus I don't like N Ram's arrogant face.

I find that TOI takes great pleasure in going into gory details especially when it comes to violent crime. E.g. a guy was having an affair with a married woman and when he came to visit her, he found her getting intimate with a local 'youth' and in a fit of anger strangled her with her own petticoat! The cops found the woman's naked body with the cloth on her head. The Hindu usually avoids unnecessary details like this.

I am also sick of the 'party' photos on Page 3. The featured party goers are usually not very good looking and more often than not, dressed rather garishly. And captions like 'sizzling in black', 'pink panther', 'purple passion' etc don't help either. I mostly read TOI for comedy value these days and I will go back to the Hindu once my kid grows up a bit.

The only good thing about TOI is that they forced the Hindu to reduce their prices by a third.

The language in TOI makes me aaaah. They write complete junk. The selection of news they publish is unbelievable nonsense. Mostly the articles on crime and party. They use cheap terms.

How would you explain a kid who has just started reading who comes up to you after reading a news on TOI and asks " what is being gay and doing orgy ? "
I was shocked of the words coming out of his mouth and damn those things were on the paper.
Where is media heading. Cant they be a little polished.


P.S. Sorry about the terms reproduced by me to make a point in here.

I am reading TOI for almost 18-20 yrs now and tried Hindu and IE in between.

I can say based on what I observe, yes, the content and news was somewhat better in Hindu compared to TOI, but Hindu's presentation, fonts, paper quality is no where near TOI. In fact I moved back to TOI within a month just because it seems more readable to eyes even before I actually pick it up and think of going through any article. Whereas I can't say same for Hindu in spite of it having more news and less of so called offensive material. The font's used or the way the news are presented in Hindu is not enticing, something which please your eyes (I don't mean pretty pictures here), it just look plain boring in it's face, I just didn't feel like reading it.

Now a day's I prefer reading news on web, easier and unlimited choices, and usually end up surfing CNN, BBC, Economist for news.

This is probably the only reason TOI is selling its numbers.

It is all about marketing. Make the paper look colorful and bright and you get your sales. Oh yeah, you need to put in some news in between all those ads (to qualify as a newspaper):D

Hindu's online page got refurbished some time back. The new online presentation and layout are pretty good.

that is the reason for newspaper standards coming down.
With a price tag which is five times less than a cup of chai,
editors have been forced to depend on ad-money.

and advertisers won't come unless circulation increases,
which can happen only if 'the masses' read/see the paper.

Actually Hindu has a superior layout design.
It's designed using scientific processes developed by Dr. Mario R. Garcia,
the world's most respected newspaper designer.
The Wall Street Journal layout too is his work.

I prefer the Hindu any day. They are very accurate and don't focus on unnecessary news (the masala stuff).

Also, I feel the language used in the Hindu is way better than the others.

I would attribute this to your habit of reading only TOI for many years.
Its proven Hindu has better typeface and paper quality. Its bright and easy on the eyes.

The reporting style can be drab, however, and one can easily dozzzzzzzzzze off.