To start with, as a reader one of the most irritating features in a newspaper is overdose of
advertisements,Hindu has almost half of the pages running into advertisements. You pay a hard earned Rs.3 to Rs.4 and you dont want to spend it reading on ads.TOI on the other hand did not have such problems in the beginning.But once the paper shot to popularity, advertisements started to overflow.
When it comes to Columns and Articles, I feel Hindu has the upper hand.The level of
detail,authenticity,diction and the entire way of the report is far better than TOI. I get the feel many times that TOI articles are bit amateurish and also beats around the bush. Whoever has read Chetan Bhagat's columns in TOI would know that he wants to impress with his style of writing rather than the content
News Coverage - Here TOI wins hand down.Not only coverage is low in Hindu at times the coverage is a bit too late.When it comes to overhyping and sensationalizing news, then one has to agree that TOI does that pretty well.I have never seen Hindu giving undue importance to celebrity gossips.TOI not only does that but also take a big pride in reporting those gossips to the readers.Having said that,I once again reiterate that 'amount' of news that oneget to see in TOI is simply much more than the Hindu
Newspaper Ethics-Also I found out that many times ,the TOI news articles' content and its photograph bears no connection at all. Take for eg., an article on how computers/laptops should adopt 'Go Green' methodologies and its corresponding picture would be a model in a bikni??!!!. Often ,in its additional magazines,you would see a number of articles giving you tips to increase the pleasure of love life,sexual desiresHOT/porn photographs,etc. to allure the readers.As far as I can remember Hindu never adopts such cheap tricks.
And Finally the one major factor that spiralled up TOI is the cost.Yes, TOI charges Rs.1.50(even on weekends) whereas the cost of Hindu is around Rs.3 to Rs.4 on weekdays and it does got upto Rs.5 on sundays.Now TOI is also issuing discounts for subscribing on annual basis.This is the rate charged in Coimbatore.Thats were the middle or even upper middle class started to consider seriously switching to TOI and save money.At the end of the day people tend to read more at a lower cost.
Lot of People believe news appearing in Hindu as reliable and untwisted.Just a small example of how 'blunder'ous they can be, in their edition dated FEB-19-2012, they have said that other than Chennai all parts of Tamil Nadu have 'two hour' power schedule.Dont you think its riduculous writing given the way how TN has been reeling under power cuts?? As I have a huge passion for cinema, I never miss out reading the movie reviews. TOI gets clearly paid by tge film-makers.Hindu movie reviews though at times inconsistent are far better and genuine than the TOI.
As I said earlier, TOI have now become clearly the most popular Newspaper. We could see that there is a slugfest between TOI and Hindu in advertisements arena where both of them bashing each other. So is TOI themost preffered or is the Hindu ? Well, according to me , if people just quickly want to know whats happening around then and if PAYING LESS is a vital factor then good times are with Times Of India. But there are a section of readers who will crave for beauty of Columns and aesthetics of other Newspaper related stuff would find solace with the Hindu.But I just get the feeling that most of the people are preferring the former. A small example, almost
all the people of my neighbourhood have Times Of India in their hands who once held Hindu or The Indian Express
