Red vs. Blue!

Feb 14, 2011: Coimbatore was draped in Red. Banners, Hoardings, Boards over petty shops and what not! 

The reason was not Valentine's Day.

It was the arrival, in Coimbatore, of "Times of India"- a newspaper that never had a dominance in the South. The loud entry was accompanied by aggressive marketing strategies, including a one year subscription for Rs.299/- which also entitled you to the gift of a very useful travel bag. People naturally signed up for it, in hordes; my household included. My uncle's family, based in Mumbai, has frequently endorsed ToI and regretted its non-availability in Tamilnadu. They felt that "The Hindu", which is easily the King in the Ring of South Indian Newspapers, focussed too much on regional news only. 

I was all set to experiment this new flavour each morning. Especially, as this was the time I used to scour newspapers hungrily for GD/PI preparation, an extra paper meant extra knowledge to my simpleton mind!  

ToI's entry here was a cause of serious concern to our dear old "The Hindu". They tried to advertise themselves too. Suddenly, many a bus-stop had a backdrop of their blue hoarding with a picture of a cute family reading their traditional newspaper. I was completely amused!

ToI was very articulate. Lots of attention-seeking images and nuggets of news in bits and pieces of message balloons strewn around. I initially liked it. Like most human beings, I prefer pictures to words and it was good to see a colourful paper. They announced a contest "One Day in the Life of India"- asking for entries in various categories- comics, photos and jokes. The shortlisted entries made good food for entertainment. But I realised I was leaving out something when I read ToI. And that something was nothing other than my mind. I was enticed by the loud captions and colours; I took in silly jokes. I was reading more gossip-stuff than real news that mattered. The one column that brought me back to my senses was the one on Parties going on in the city. I was shocked to see that they found it worth reporting who came to which party dressed in what, spending time how and with whom, etc.! Seriously who'd give a damn about all this, maybe except those party-freaks who got pictured in the paper?!  

Meanwhile, my "The Hindu" was still there. Quality reporting. Top-class language ( I once thought I'd identified a usage error in the paper and sent them an email. They called me back to clarify it! Such a huge organization cared enough to clear the doubt of a college girl they might as well have ignored! ) And Absolutely No Gossip. The supplementary editions made good reading, as usual, with no nonsense. There was good humour in the words of Indu Balachandran in Sunday's "Magazine". Wow, I even remember the writers' names as I type now. Goes on to show the impression the paper has made on me. 

ToI's crass reporting became obvious to me when they put up the news item of a boy from my college committing suicide in the hostel. Well, the data given in the report was illogical and did not corroborate with my knowledge of my college's functioning. Maybe they were given wrong facts. But publishing every word heard without giving a thought to verifying the data obtained is not responsible journalism. Come on, which 20-year-old will take his life due to wheezing problem?! Has common sense become so uncommon? The Hindu had no trace of that news item.

Blue has won my permanent respect. They surely don't focus on the South Regional news alone. Which Indian newspaper got the rights to the WikiLeaks India cables? And I'm just happy with the amount of other International and National News I get from "The Hindu".     

ToI, I shall take a leaf out of your book to learn marketing strategies. Your entry was good. But sadly, your core workforce (at least here in Coimbatore) is not up to the mark, to retain the attraction you gained.