The "Times" of the Hindu

My family has been a loyal subscriber to the Hindu for a long, long time. We used to get the Indian Express when I was a kid, but my grandfather decided it was a waste of time (I guess they realized it too, what with the rebranding of the paper to "The New Indian Express." Only my mom keeps insisting it is a case of old wine in a new bottle).

Anyway, since the time the IE was rejected, its been only The Hindu in our house. Just about six months ago, TOI was launched in Chennai, and they came in with aggressive marketing. They were offering free subscriptions and undercutting The Hindu big time. My mom fell prey to one of their subscription gimmicks (they told her TOI has more interesting puzzles and cartoons, which are, by some crazy twist of fate, my mom's current obsession) and before my dad could say "The Hindu", the TOI was being religiously delivered to our gate.

The contrast between the two papers could not be more glaring. While The Hindu believes in the quality of news and language and all the other old school features, the TOI firmly believes in the new mantra of marketing - packaging. They use flashy colors, sexy images and a liberal dose of gossip to get their point across. For example, sports news would contain EPL results along with a picture of Victoria Beckham and other WAGS "strategically positioned" (meaning an almost life size image) in very skimpy clothes. Bush's statements on the nuclear deal will also have a picture of Pitt and Jolie's nth kid. I don't know if this is more of a distraction or attraction - I mean, finally the people who want to read the news will read the article on Bush anyway.

Every morning, I find it a fun exercise to compare the layouts of TOI and The Hindu (okay, I am officially a geek now). The Hindu uses text, text and more text. TOI, on the other hand, uses bubbles, flowcharts, algorithms and any other pictorial representation that will catch the eye. Reading The Hindu takes time, getting the jist of events through TOI is easy. TOI will never usurp the position of The Hindu in the eyes of the conservatives who love good English and reading a paper for two hours. But for the fast paced new generation, delivering news with gossip might be the ideal marketing plan.

Content wise, The Hindu is becoming increasingly leftist (their support of Russia and the Communists are gaining vigor by the day) whereas TOI is more centrist. The supplements of the two papers are also drastically different (Chennai Times is like Filmfare distributed in pages of 4 over the week). Compare this: On Sunday, TOI's supplement - Times Life - published an article on threesomes and free sex (honestly! In Chennai?) along with an article on how "little girls want to be called sexy". The Hindu, in its Downtown supplement, published an article with interviews of 93 year old and 78 year old ladies reminiscing the days when kolu included wearing paavadai chattai, making murukku and singing devotional songs. I think these two articles just said it all on what the two papers represent.

The ad of The Hindu goes "If its Chennai, its The Hindu." I think they should change it to "If TOI is here, The Hindu better watch out."