Jun 17, 2003 12:35 PM
9015 Views
(Updated Jun 17, 2003 12:37 PM)
I have gone through all 3 reviews on this Topic. I wish to express my view in two parts.
First of all about the Company and its products: Established in 1838, this company is perhaps the largest in Newspaper industry. It owns famous brands like TOI, Femina, Filmfare, Indiatimes etc. TOI is the largest English Daily in India. Also Indiatimes is a very famous Websites in India. Femina and Filmfare are famous as these magazines are closely associated with Ms India and Bollywood respectively. TOI, I have seen many a times, focuses on the promotions of its own website and related services from Indiatimes. I agree that this is the best way to promote own products and services but it is becoming too much. Also, The no of advertisements are so much that the reader forgets to read the news and just finds himself in jungle of advertisements. If anybody has read foreign newspapers like The Times, Guardian, telegraph, he would certainly feel the difference.
Similarly, Indiatimes.com. I have an email address (I had to make one id to access the site) on this. Now I get so many spam mails and promotional mails from Indiatimes other id’s that it becomes difficult to find useful mail in these. However there is an option to block the sender but surprisingly, even if you block the sender, you still receive the mail from same id. Not only that if you try to reply to that id, you get Mail Failure, saying that this id does not exist. More interestingly, there is no option to unsubscribe in the mail, which I think is necessary in any promotional mail as far as the Internet Laws say. I have written to many people in indiatimes but no reply, no affect, nothing.
I have not got the opportunity to read femina and filmfare but I am sure about the reputation after seeing the exposure and sponsorship for bollywood and Ms India Show.
Now I will put my views on, “Who is responsible for this”. The answer is simple. We are responsible for this. It is very clear that they are totally focused on their revenue and profit. And why shouldn’t they be? They are not a charitable trust. They are cashing on our weakness, our laws, our systems and interestingly we all together make them. We all like reading advertisements more than the news; we all like to receive promotional offers in mails or in advertisements. We have made this newspaper popular thinking that it gives us good news and views and that is the key to success of TOI group. Advertisements come to their offices and give them revenue. News, they have to go and get, in fact spend money on that. Which is more profitable? That’s why newspaper is so cheap in India compared to the price in foreign.
Rest I leave on my friends to think and put their comments. This is my opinion; let us see what others say. I would not recommend TOI for news to anybody.
