Subject: Deteriorat
Dear Editor,
It is with great regret that I am penning down this e-mail.
Once the TOI was really a Leader. Features such as articles by Prof. Yash Pal, Dr. Nadkarni, Hi-Tech and Sci-Tech, the Centre articles on the Editorial page (which was on the right), an International page (which even the Economist would have been proud of), a crossword section unrivalled anywhere, food and lifestyle articles by eminent writers by Siddharth Kak, etc, were what made the TOI a prized newspaper.
Times change and so should we... but consistency should be maintained. Now, all your articles are becoming smaller and more opinionated, your editorials sound like advertorials, ad space has increased, etc. Infact if you compute the quantity of column inches dedicated to core news vs. that dedicated to advertisements and advertorials, over the last 15 years, you'll find a substantial decrease.
More important is the quality of news. Once what was a hotbed of incisive journalism is beginning to sound more like a tabloid like the Sun of Great Britain. Pray what is going on? Your Sunday editions are no longer readable, except for a few sections by Jug Suraiya, Bachi Karkaria, et al. Swaminomics and Gurcharan Das also seem to be getting rarer.
Is it a sign of the times (pun unintended) that the TOI must join its crass counterparts in Aaj Tak and India TV, where the news is so unreliable that it must be seen as a comic relief, at best?
It sounds suspiciously like your marketing department is running the show. Being a marketing professional myself, I can tell when you try to maximize short term revenue. But it is at a great cost. The reputation which was painstakingly built over the years will be irrevocably lost. It us, the Readers, because of whom your circulation is large. Because of which you can command a premium in advertisements. But increase advertising and advertorials beyond a point, and your readership will flag, sooner than you think. Because your target audience is still your Readers and not Advertisers. Your differentiating factor is your reputation as a serious, critical newspaper - and converting it into a tabloid will only hurt, not help. Just wait and see. For all the hits you're taking now, recession is not the answer.
My marketing professor used to joke: "Definition of Marketing: A sucker is being born every minute somewhere - your job is to find him." Let's hope you are not unwittingly taking him seriously. Because customers/readers take great objection to being suckered, and they vote with their purchase/reading preferences.
Think about it. It's about TOI's survival.
Regards,
A Reader
