COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN HINDUSTAN

TIMES AND TIMES OF INDIA

When Indians get out of the bed, the first thing they want to
do is find out whats happening around the world. Hindustan
Times and the Times of India have been huge contributors in
fulfilling this need for throngs of people. Both of these
newspapers are published in English. Hindustan Times has its
roots from the time of the Indian independence movement.
Times of India (TOI) has been able to attain the position of
covering most of the world in terms of its distribution. The
Sahu Jain family, the owner of the Bennett, Coleman & Co.
Ltd, manages and the owns the TOI .
History
In 1924, Hindustan Times was originated by its founder
father, Master Sunder Singh Lyallpuri of the Alkali Movement,
but at a later date was transferred to S. Chanchal Singh and
Tesildar.
The originating year of Times of India was 1838 when it was
initially known as the Bombay Times and the Journal of
Commerce. In the early stages, distribution was established
as biweekly. The newspapers distribution area is huge starting
from as far away as Europe to the Indian subcontinent.
Originally it was owned by the British and post Indian
independence was passed on to the Dalmiyas, an industrial
Indian family.
Editions
The edition of Times of India has been made possible so that
it can reach the doorstep of patrons living in any city with
distributors. Its distribution covers cities like Bangalore, Goa,
Guwahati,
Lucknow,
Kolkata,
Indore,
Kanpur,
Delhi,
Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Chennai and
many more.
The editions of the Hindustan Times are mostly covered by
the HT Mumbai Edition and the HT Delhi Edition. The editions

have their own supplements like the HT Mumbai edition

carries the HT Caf and the HT Delhi carries the HT City.

Trends
Since Times of India has been successful in delivering most of
the news instantly with a particular format like sections
divided into particular sub headings as well the easily familiar
English language that makes it a readable for most people, it
has gained massive popularity. It has set its own trend among
youngsters with the supplement Delhi Times.
Hindustan Times has been able to satisfy peoples interest as
it has a format that many people are fond of and or are
accustomed to. The HT city supplement has achieved success
via its presentation in an extraordinary format.
Summary
Newspapers have been part of many Indians daily lives and
hence;

Times of India has gained a lot of market share amongst

youngsters.

Hindustan Times has evolved to the tastes of Indians

since it has been out of the hands of the British Community.

Supplements have set their own trends.

HT city and Delhi Times have been successful in

satisfying the masses.
Both Hindustan Times and The Times of India are the famous
newspaper in our country and available in every part of the
country. Hindustan times is available in both Hindi and English
language whereas The Times of India comes with English
language only.
The Times of India is better than Hindustan times. Really both
newspapers are very popular in our country. They are read by

many people in our country. But the Times of India is the best of
all newspapers. we can see the following list for it.:
(1) Easy Language: People find its language very easy. They can
understand it easily. It expresses the views of the reporter
clearly.
(2) International News: There are news related to international
matters. It depicts a clear picture of the world. It has all type of
news
concerned
to
this
world.
(3) National News: This is the newspaper which has many
national news along with international language. People find all
kind
of
news.
(4) All kinds of news: In this newspaper people find all kind of
news. There is material for all age group people. Children also
find
material
according
to
their
choice.
(5) Popularity: This newspaper is very popular in our country. It
is read by all people. They are sold in great quantity in our
country.
(6) Which newspaper is sold mostly: The times of India is sold in
great quantity in our country. There are many people that read
it. It is sold almost all part of our country.
.
(7) Which newspaper earns more income: The Times of India
has great earning compared to other newspapers. People read it
and buy it so it has gained popularity very fast in its earning
field.

Top 10 reasons why The Hindu is better than The Times

of India

A newspaper committed to rich journalistic practices is surely

the most important contributor to the strength of media the
fourth pillar of democracy. Not only does it bring out in the
open the happenings in different parts of the nation but also
makes way for the improvement of the existing situation of
the country. Surely, The Hindu could be categorized as one of
the newspapers that are performing their duty to the best of
their potential for many decades now. Despite lacking in
readership numbers to The Times of India, the Chennai-based
newspaper has earned a sincere place in hearts of millions of
Indians over time due to its high standard and news reporting
ethics.

1. Marketers dont decide content:

The Times of India is one of the top five leading dailies in any
language around the world and sole credit can be attributed
to its marketers who decide on the content of news published
on paper. However, The Hindu also rules numerous hearts in
the country, but it rejects the proposal of colluding with the
marketing agents of the company to produce news with sight
on incoming moolah .
2. Trustworthy:
The Hindu carries a reputation of a newspaper that is
trustworthy in its news articles and could be used as a
reference point for further discussion without a doubt
hanging anywhere. The information and statistical details are
well researched .
3. Independent functioning:

There are very few newspapers in the country that function

with as much independence as The Hindu. Despite being a
family run business, the identity and independent nature of
working style has been unaffected for decades at a stretch.
Unlike the Jain family that owns The Times of India, The Hindu
is considered to be more of an organization that believes in
inclusive approach .
4. Youth centric:
The Hindu is regarded as the best newspaper in the country
for encouraging youth to take part in the countrys decision
making process. The articles published in the newspapers are
way better than those of The Times of India when it comes at
raising youth related issues that affect nation.
5. Editorials are balanced in approach:
Very rarely would you come across an article on the editorial
page in The Hindu that smells of predisposition and
favoritism. Almost all the articles are well researched and
written from a neutral approach. In short, the editorials are
fairly balanced and dont propagate ideology of any political
party.
6. News doesnt mean glamour:
While The Times of India indulges in Bollywood gossips to
earn more readers, The Hindu doesnt value masquerading
Bollywood trivia in form of mainstream news. The Hindu
works on raised standards of journalism and therefore
exhibits lot more prudence and maturity in the content
published.
7. Value to the thoughts of readers:
The Hindu publishes Letters to the Editor on its editorial
section on a regular basis and chooses all sorts of comments

from the followers, no matter how critical they maybe. Unlike

The Times of India, and any other newspaper for that matter,
most of the comments are critical in nature and yet The
Hindu publishes them. This shows the professionalism in the
hierarchy of the establishment.
8. Investigative approach:
A majority of the newspaper readers in the country who have
followed both the papers closely have found that the articles
in The Hindu are more expressive and based on investigative
journalism than those in The Times of India. The niche view
goes with The Hindu for the sole reason that there is far more
than mere written words in it.
9. Journalism is no business:
A news article in any form of print media should be nonbiased and irrespective of the public sentiments, as per the
journalistic practices followed around the world. However, not
only are newspapers like The Times of India biased to a large
extent, they also sell their editorial spaces to useless
advertisements for some easy bucks.

How TOI woke up The Hindu

A Times of India (TOI) advert that has been running for the last
three months in various regional television channels down
south, starts with a montage of boring scenes someone
inaugurating a building, an election rally, a leaking water pipe,

rows of men, exercising, school children with a rolling shield

and so on. In the background, a monotonous voice sings a
lullaby. Each of these scenes ends with a reader sleeping in
various positions standing, sitting, lying down, leaning over.
Suddenly, these nine words flash on the screen Stuck with
the news that puts you to sleep? and the tempo of the music
changes. Its now energetic and cheerful. A stack of
newspapers falls down with a thud and a printing press is in full
blast in the background. The ad ends with these words: Wake
up to the Times of India. The viewers are left with no doubt
what soporific scenes allude to The Hindu, ToIs main rival in
the city.
Looking at whats taking place at The Hindu these days, its
tempting to say Whether the Chennai readers woke up to
Times or not, The Hindu certainly did. After all, thats what any
competition is supposed to do. Shake the incumbent out of
slumber and force it to change.
There has been a lot of changes in The Hindu of late. Earlier
this month, on 18th, N Ram, stepped down as editor-in-chief of
The Hindu, Business Line, Frontline, and Sportstar, and gave the
charge of these publications to Siddharth Varadarajan, D.
Sampathkumar, R. Vijayasankar, and Nirmal Shekhar, all senior
editors in Kasturi & Sons.
These changes on the editorial side are significant, indeed
milestones in our progress as a newspaper-publishing
company, Ram wrote to his colleagues on the day he stepped
down. They are a vital part of the process of
professionalization and contemporization under way in all the
companys operations. I am clear that this is the only way to
face the future the opportunities as well as the challenges.
Last month, on 29th December, Ram gave a farewell speech to
Hindu staff. He said he would continue to be available in the
office in his capacity as a wholetime director and that anyone
can feel free to drop into his office. However, he wouldnt
discuss editorial issues. Siddharth is fully in charge.
On the business side, Arun Anant, who has worked in Bennet
Coleman, the publishers of Times of India, Economic Times etc,
before going on to UTV and later starting his own consulting
firm, is to join the company as CEO early next month. It never
had a CEO before. Till a couple of years back, N Murali, younger

brother of Ram was in charge in his capacity of MD, and more

recently it was K Balaji, a cousin.
I spoke to a few journalists at The Hindu, and they said they
have started feeling the impact. Sometime back when the Delhi
edition of The Hindu carried a front page ad featuring a
businessman turned politician swearing his allegiance to
Sonia Gandhi, in a rather indignfied way, Siddharth
Varadharajan posted a message on his facebook wall : To all
those who messaged me about the atrocious front page ad in
The Hindus Delhi edition on Jan 1, my view as Editor is that this
sort of crass commercialisation compromises the image and
reputation of my newspaper. We are putting in place a policy to
ensure the front page is not used for this sort of an ad again.
I am not too sure if Ram would have responded this way, a
journalist said.
They expect more changes. From the meetings we have had
so far, I get a feeling that there will more photos, sharper
content; and definitely fewer events coverage that Hindu is
kind of known for, another journalist told me. And news of
local interest will get more prominence. On Tuesday Hindus
Chennai edition carried a news of a murder as second lead.
That space almost always went to news of national and
international importance.
Hindu was also known to be a very lenient employer. Journalists
there love to rant about colleagues who have spent weeks
doing next to nothing; even mistakes are easily for given, or
punished at worst with a transfer. That will change too. No
one really said that in as many words, but that seems to be the
message.
Conclusion:
TOI has placed more emphasis on an industry like setup
and has branched out into various other fields in the news
and entertainment industry
Hindu Group which has been a tightly owned family
business with its entire focus on the newspaper
This difference can be seen in the emphasis placed by the
TOI on the entertainment business and the infotainment
and tabloid style news prevalent in it today as compared
to The Hindu which has in general stuck to the "hard
news.

We can also see the effect of the size of Bennet, Coleman and
Co. in the ads in TOI promoting its own brands (Radio Mirchi,
Times Now etc.) using the newspaper medium
Comparison on the basis of the number of Page 3
articles:
TOI has a significantly higher proportion of articles related to
celebrities and tabloid style journalism as compared to the
Hindu on the same dates (6th to 10th November, 2006)
It should be noted that the result provided in the table below
does not include the daily supplement (Kanpur Times) which is
essentially a tabloid style paper dedicated to gossip and
celebrity photos.
Newspa
per

Total
pages

Times of
India

16

The
Hindu

24

no.

of

Articles dedicated to Page 3

8 to 11
(apart from the
Kanpur Times*)

supplement

2 to 3

Comparison on the basis of the space given to the

Advertisements:
The larger space given to advertisements in general
reflect the consumerist nature of our society and the
increased emphasis on colourful eye catching products
designed to capture the readers attention in the
newspaper.
The newspaper also benefits from the increased revenue
this space generates everyday.
It also reduces the necessity to come up with extra
columns of hard news for the paper.

 TOI here also surpasses the Hindu based on the ratio of

ad-space to the total no of pages.

Newspa
per

Total
pages

no.

of

Average Advertisement Space

Times of
India

16

3 to 4 pages

The
Hindu

24

4 to 5 pages