The citizens of Madras, over the past few days, have been witness to David taking on Goliath. Times of India (never mind it’s a Goliath elsewhere) has been trying to take The Hindu head on with a series of ads that has a sleeping man in everyday situations of Madras with a screaming line: Is the morning news putting you to sleep? Wake up to the Times of India.
Is the campaign working? Has the ad woken up the citizens of Madras to the perils of sleeping with The Hindu and moving to the Times of India instead?
We would know once the next round of INS data comes in.
But The Hindu certainly seemed to have woken up! Readers of The Hindu – the venerable Maha Vishnu of Mount Road – have been waking up to a change. A change in the kind of news one gets to read in The Hindu.
No, The Hindu’s impeccable language and unimpeachable use of the English language haven’t changed. Not definitely the absolute trustworthiness of its news reporting. Nor its unbelievable depth of coverage. These and other hallmarks of world class journalism that one could find only in The Hindu, hasn’t changed one iota.
But the kind of news The Hindu has added to its repertoire certainly has. ‘Why this Kolaveridi’ song (that everyone is raving about) was analyzed threadbare in The Hindu. And guess where? On prime real estate…..the front page! Never in my life have I, or for that matter millions of loyal Hindu readers, seen anything remotely similar in the first page of our morning master.
A few days back there was a complete postmortem of the decline of Kingfisher airlines……front page piece again.
There have been more changes too. The kind of headlines The Hindu now uses. The kind of news from Page 2 through the last. You could see and smell change - albeit some of them minor. The Hindu is racier now, so to speak. Funnier now, so to add. The Hindu is seeing change, to say the least!
So, coming back to the question, yes, advertising does work. Though quite not in the way TOI might have expected to! It has woken up a sleeping giant and probably getting ready to get crushed!
It’s time for Times of India to wake up……to a marauding Hindu!
6 comments:
Sir, I study TOI, the information related to my business are pretty interesting and informative. But The Hindu is not able to give it. Also the commercial part of the paper (Chennai Times- Attachment) play a very good role.
To add another notable point..
TOI seems to be having a lot of advertisements, especially full page ones, as if they are giving it away for free..
I don't know about Hindu, cos I switched to TOI long back..
David has definitely made Goliath Change.. :)
Being an avid reader of Hindu, no wonder u fear to let go off the pride.
Hindu has just been reactive throu'out and at a point it succumbed itself to the price war.
Your MahaVishnu of Mount road is giving up, why don't you?
Hope, hindu doesn't dilute its value. It has always been for people who want serious, dispassionate news reporting and analysis. It runs more on subscriptions than on advt revenues as in the case of TOI which explains the free epaper. I hope the hindu doesn't let down its loyal readers by aping one of the most casual, frivolous and slanted newspapers where every second article is paid news and advt in the garb of news. Toi is all about sensationalism..
Nice post there is i like your views.
been in Maharashtra fr 6 months now. miss the hindu! times of india is really ordinary.
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