The Times of India

Name says it all!!

The Times of India is nation’s leading media company.

World’s largest English broadsheet daily.

They have made Times a destination, must-read paper to begin the morning and combination

of current national, world and business events….

and also the society gossip sells the paper.

HISTORY AND EVOLUTION

The Times of India was founded on November 3, 1838 as 'The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce' In Mumbai, as a semi-weekly edition, on Saturdays and Wednesdays.

The daily editions of the paper were started from 1850 and in 1861, the Bombay Times was renamed The Times of India.

In the 19th century this newspaper company employed more than 800 people and had a sizable circulation in India and Europe.

It was after India's Independence that the ownership of the paper passed on to the then famous industrial family of Dalmiyas and later it was taken over by Sahu Shnati Prasad Jain of the Sahu Jain group from Bijnore, UP.

The Anglo-Indian papers promoted purely British interests. Robert Knight (1825–1892) was the principal founder and the first editor of the Times.

Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. is the largest media group in India, known as The Times Group. It is best known as the publisher of the English daily The Times of India.

MARKET SITUATION WHEN TOI ENTERED

Printing press appeared in India as early as 1670, not until 1777 was the first newspaper printed in Bombay. These papers were operated by Parsi businessmen, and printed in English – several dozen existed by 1800.

Papers in native languages appeared in the 1820s and 1830s.

In Post Independence era, i.e., in 1950 there were 214 daily newspapers and in 1990 that number had increased to 2,856.

CURRENT STATUS OF TOI

According to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2010, the Times of India is the most widely read English newspaper in India with a readership of 13.4 million.

The circulation in 2010 increased to 530524. [According to Audit Bureau of Circulation ]

TOI Online is the world's most-visited newspaper website with 159 million page views in May 2009, ahead of the New York Times, The Sun, Washington Post, Daily Mail and USA Today websites.

HOW DID THEY GROW AND SUSTAIN?

On January 22, 2004, TOI signed a joint operating agreement with Dow Jones & Co. to publish the Wall Street Journal for India. The Journal would be published 5 days a week, with Dow Jones owning 26% – the maximum allowed by foreign ownership laws – and the Times of India, owning 74% of the new venture. The content would focus on Indian readers and tap into the global resources of the Wall Street Journal.

PPI Media integrated with the SAP software, provided TOI with significant competitive advantage in terms of speed, efficiency and turnaround time.

Over the years since the implementation, TOI have had a whole lot of changes with respect to business policies and configuration.

In June, 2003, When TOI went live, the newspaper changed the width of its paper. Moreover, in September, the Group changed its entire pricing policy, which had not changed in about 10 years. In May 2004, the Group changed its units of measurement

Conglomeration of Times of India with TV medium:-

- Times of India made its appearance a hit, by the launch of Zoom TV, a entertainment channel, viewing Page 3 gossip and Indian and Western cinema.

-MOVIES NOW, This too was a worked strategic, as Indians are curios about the happenings in cinema and the world around it, the channel making its hit.

-TIMES NOW is a Leading 24-hour English News channel

-ET Now, the latest addition to business news channels

MARKETING STRATEGIES

The advertisements have highlighted the ‘Indian-ness’ in all the campaigns and reflected how TOI is a part of this great journey of Indian-ness.

The Times Group constantly keeps things exciting – not just through their contents, but also through their designs and innovations.

Everything that they do is also always greatly marketed and backed up by perhaps one of India’s best sales teams, which is always equipped with the best tools and researches.

In their campaigns – rather than talk about the newspaper, they try and be the platform or the presenter of ideas that come from the readers’ own lives, reflect their hopes, aspirations.

TOI recently announced the launch of an all-colour newspaper of colour in Indian life as seen on our streets and our cinema and linked it back to the product subtly, rather than a narrow campaign focusing on the product itself.

Move first, Move fast

Multiple ties

Continuous innovation 

Where ideas live 

Smart-sensing the future

The newness of the masthead on occasions like Diwali, Holi, Christmas, New Year, Budget Day, etc., acts as a refreshing innovation and helps forge an emotive link with the reader segment.

They don’t have their PR agency. So they communicate through their own media channels.

CHALLENGES The early 1990s saw HT and ToI engaged in a

bitter battle for supremacy in Delhi, which is perceived to be the most important market in India.

In 1991, ToI had a circulation of around 70,000 in Delhi as against 0.35 million for HT. 

In 1994, ToI slashed its price from Rs.2.30 to Rs.1.50. By 1998, the difference in circulation figures narrowed down to a few thousand copies. Since 1991, ToI's circulation has increased in percentage terms more than HT

The Times of India group has not only challenged, but also sought damages worth Rs 100 crore (about US $ 22 million) from Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Limited for making false readership claims.

To gain a bigger share, Hindustan Times' vice chairperson Shobhana Bhartia chalked out a restructuring plan with an investment of Rs.4 billion.

TOI followed the marketing style of blitzkrieg: events, promotions and ad campaigns...

The Times Group also places equal focus and importance to every department and function - which has made it a professional entity and ensured its place as the most profitable newspaper in the country.

The present management of The Times Group has been instrumental in changing the outlook of Indian journalism.

The Editor of a newspaper has traditionally been considered as the most notable position in a newspaper set up. The Times of India, however, changed this in the early 1990s, in keeping with the management policy of treating the newspaper as just another brand in the market

UPS AND DOWNS IN THE BUSINESS -CRISIS MGT

Jain and his team have made the Times a destination, the must-read paper to begin the morning, not only for the current national, world, and business events, but also for the society gossip and that combination sells papers.

Critics argue that the Times of India uses its pages for too much blatant cross-promotion of its media products, which in turn diminishes its journalistic credibility.

During the mid-1990s, TOI was criticized for promoting 'yellow journalism' by sensationalizing news, exaggerating news events, promoting its own brands, etc.

Today's readers don't just expect news about politics or society or business issues anymore. They also expect an editorial line on contemporary issues like fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle.

In order to build its brand image, TOI adopted a social marketing strategy and projected itself as an agent of social change by launching a series of social campaigns highlighting social issues.

In a bid to improve its circulation, TOI was concentrating on efforts like introducing colored pages, celebrity articles, and film-related news rather than taking care of the deteriorating quality of its content.

The backlash against the Times of India has been a continued concern of management. Ardent opponents have called for boycotts of all Bennett, Coleman products, prompting a protest campaign on a website http://techrose.org/justsayno,

And calling the company the “Microsoft of Indian media– too penetrating, too rich, too arrogant, and too powerful.”

According to the Times Group, the 'Teach India' campaign created a lot of buzz and within three weeks of the program being launched in July 2008, a total of 88,710 people had responded. Of these, 55,035 applied for the program

The performance of sales force is measured in terms of the number of subscriptions generated by each sales person.

At the end of the month they collate how many subscriptions have been generated by executives and on the basis of subscriptions generated salary is computed.

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April 03 May 03 'May 04 'April 05

TIMES OF INDIA IS PRINTED FROM THE FOLLOWING PLACES-

•Lucknow•Mangalore•Mumbai•Mysore•Nagpur•Patna•Pune•Ranchi•Surat

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION.

On May 7, 2008, the 73rd Annual INMA awards for the world's best newspaper marketing campaigns were presented at the INMA World Congress in Beverly Hills, California. 

The Times of India's (TOI) 'Lead India' Campaign bagged the 'Best of Show' award for community service and also picked up the first prize in the 'Brand Awareness Across Platforms', the 'New Brand / Production/ Audience Development', and 'Public Relations and Community services' categories.

FUTURE PLANS Partnerships with top global media

companies Wall Street Journal BBC

NO plans to rest on its laurels.

CRM solution for their clients and agencies.(Extensive use of new media)