Loving and Hating TOI
June 8, 2004 09:57 AM
I am one of the many people who love to hate the Trash of India / Dishrag of India / TOI-letpaper of India / Tabloid of India Kleenex of India for its commercialisation of content. We still subscribe to both TOI and Indian Express today. But there are occasions when I feel that TOI is simply better in including (not covering, mind you) news than Indian Express or any other English daily. Take the example of today's issue. The Venus transit event takes the centre column on the front page of TOI while it doesn't even get a mention in Indian Express. Huh? you say. Indian Express continues with the political babble on every single page of the paper. On the other hand TOI has a handsome page 10 describing the event.
So, you ask, why should anyone care about science when there are some many things to worry about? I say, carry on. I prefer well rounded news to regular political trash. Forget me, I have other sources (and better ones at that) for non-political news. What about others? How do you promote science among the general public? On seeing the news, my mother quickly read through the whole page and was as excited as I am about the event.(Its another thing that I won't be able to go to Worli for the event or see it myself). Now this doesn't mean that I love the TOI-letpaper just for this thing. I still prefer IE.
12 comments have been added.
Add your comments.
1.
Dhar said...
The best way to remain in touch with Sci-News is Slashot/Wired/CNET/Pop-Sci/Kuro5hin/The Register etc.
If it is not covered on one of them, it might not be worth knowing at all. :)
Cheers,
Dhar
2.
Nilesh said...
Slashot
Hmmm.... Slash Hot. Definitive source for Sci News.
3.
codey said...
Umm... the reasons why TOI carried the story on page 1 might be totally different from what you might attribute to it ;)
Prioritywise, Express does not have a reason to do such a splash, they address a totally different segment of readers who would not complain even if the item was not on the front page.
TOI specialises in stories that require low overheads as far as actually embellishing a story goes, the basic texture of a story done by them differs vastly from an Express one.
On the other hand, from my time at IE, I do remember that they give substantial column space to science and tech stories that no one else bothers to cover.
About the previous post, any specific reasons for the host change?
4.
Manohar said...
Guru, Publick ko glamour maangta, TOIlet glamour deta, lotsa pictures, hige photospreads, lotsa gossip.
Anyone interested in the news, is looking in the wrong place.
;-)
5.
Nilesh said...
TOI specialises in stories that require low overheads as far as actually embellishing a story goes, the basic texture of a story done by them differs vastly from an Express one.
Like I said, they have included the story may not necessarily mean they have covered it too. Its probably lifted from some foreign journal. It does appear too. The world visibility map on the page is lifted from the webpage of an observatory, I know for sure. The argument from the other side will be - it is not possible to cover each and every story.
About the host - high upgrade cost. Filled my current disk space. Moving to a cheaper host.
6.
Nilesh said...
Guru, Publick ko glamour maangta, TOIlet glamour deta, lotsa pictures, hige photospreads, lotsa gossip.
Sleaze sells!
7.
Manohar said...
Sleaze Always sells, its the reason why the oldest profession known to mankind is still alive and doing well. Thinking of this ... hmm, is there an analogy coming up between the two ?
8.
codey said...
The world visibility map on the page is lifted from the webpage of an observatory, I know for sure.
One of the sites that that TOI's print desk firewall permits access to is Google ;)
About the host - high upgrade cost. Filled my current disk space. Moving to a cheaper host.
Ever thought about getting one of those discounted dedicated servers and pulling in 5-6 other people who are on shared hosting to get the costs down to normal levels?
Serverbeach has a $99 Athlon 2100 with 1 GB RAM/2000 GB B'width/60 GB HDD.
If you can get 10 friends to sign up, that is a pretty neat deal (200 GB traffic per person) for $10 a month.
I'm often tempted to go for such a deal, but I already admin a server located at a friend's place.
9.
Gautam said...
I grew up on the TOI before it went Toi-let!
Those were the days when Sham Lal was the Editor and the Jains hadn't inverted the pyramid of journalism to put the advertisers on top.
Check out this post on my Blog for a new perspective on news making :-D
http://gauteg.blogspot.com/2004/05/madhukar-on-media.html
regards,
gautam
10.
Jes said...
Yeah! I know what you mean. I hadn't heard abt the venus thing till my boyfriend told me....and I would have loved to read abt it. But I get the IE. Then again, I love the IE for the way it covers political news. But politics ain't all the news there is. Sigh! Maybe, we too should start suscribing to both TOI and IE.
11.
Sameer said...
Speaking of TOI-let paper... I guess one should take TOI as well as IE to the toilet for the early morning read. Having skimmed through the TOI, one can read IE at leisure and use TOI-let paper as it name suggests!
And on the topic of preferring IE... I guess your argument can be tweaked to explain why I use IE even though I prefer Mozilla! ;-)
12.
TanTrix said...
Strange, just a few months back, I was lamenting the fall in quality of India's foremost newspapers. What was once a well-balanced newspaper, with science and art news, has now become a celebrity diary. Take any Sunday, and you can possibly guess the celebrities that would be featured- Amitabh Bachchan/The Ambanis/Amar singh/ Mallya/Shahrukh. There is more to news than these page 3 types. My personal suggestion for a good newspaper is the Hindu, though you have to forgive them for their unflinching stance. At least they have one.
Your Comments
* Please do not put off-topic comments. We reserve right to delete them at our discretion. You can post anonymously. If you are unable to see your posted comment immediately, it may have been queued for moderation. So do not submit it again. HTML formatting is allowed (only a, b, i, br, p, strong, em, ul, li & blockquote are allowed). Do not put paragraph tags. They are automatically inserted.
12 comments have been added. Add your comments.
1. Dhar said...
The best way to remain in touch with Sci-News is Slashot/Wired/CNET/Pop-Sci/Kuro5hin/The Register etc.
If it is not covered on one of them, it might not be worth knowing at all. :)
Cheers,
Dhar
2. Nilesh said...
Slashot
Hmmm.... Slash Hot. Definitive source for Sci News.
3. codey said...
Umm... the reasons why TOI carried the story on page 1 might be totally different from what you might attribute to it ;)
Prioritywise, Express does not have a reason to do such a splash, they address a totally different segment of readers who would not complain even if the item was not on the front page.
TOI specialises in stories that require low overheads as far as actually embellishing a story goes, the basic texture of a story done by them differs vastly from an Express one.
On the other hand, from my time at IE, I do remember that they give substantial column space to science and tech stories that no one else bothers to cover.
About the previous post, any specific reasons for the host change?
4. Manohar said...
Guru, Publick ko glamour maangta, TOIlet glamour deta, lotsa pictures, hige photospreads, lotsa gossip.
Anyone interested in the news, is looking in the wrong place.
;-)
5. Nilesh said...
TOI specialises in stories that require low overheads as far as actually embellishing a story goes, the basic texture of a story done by them differs vastly from an Express one.
Like I said, they have included the story may not necessarily mean they have covered it too. Its probably lifted from some foreign journal. It does appear too. The world visibility map on the page is lifted from the webpage of an observatory, I know for sure. The argument from the other side will be - it is not possible to cover each and every story.
About the host - high upgrade cost. Filled my current disk space. Moving to a cheaper host.
6. Nilesh said...
Guru, Publick ko glamour maangta, TOIlet glamour deta, lotsa pictures, hige photospreads, lotsa gossip.
Sleaze sells!
7. Manohar said...
Sleaze Always sells, its the reason why the oldest profession known to mankind is still alive and doing well. Thinking of this ... hmm, is there an analogy coming up between the two ?
8. codey said...
The world visibility map on the page is lifted from the webpage of an observatory, I know for sure.
One of the sites that that TOI's print desk firewall permits access to is Google ;)
About the host - high upgrade cost. Filled my current disk space. Moving to a cheaper host.
Ever thought about getting one of those discounted dedicated servers and pulling in 5-6 other people who are on shared hosting to get the costs down to normal levels?
Serverbeach has a $99 Athlon 2100 with 1 GB RAM/2000 GB B'width/60 GB HDD.
If you can get 10 friends to sign up, that is a pretty neat deal (200 GB traffic per person) for $10 a month.
I'm often tempted to go for such a deal, but I already admin a server located at a friend's place.
9. Gautam said...
I grew up on the TOI before it went Toi-let!
Those were the days when Sham Lal was the Editor and the Jains hadn't inverted the pyramid of journalism to put the advertisers on top.
Check out this post on my Blog for a new perspective on news making :-D
http://gauteg.blogspot.com/2004/05/madhukar-on-media.html
regards,
gautam
10. Jes said...
Yeah! I know what you mean. I hadn't heard abt the venus thing till my boyfriend told me....and I would have loved to read abt it. But I get the IE. Then again, I love the IE for the way it covers political news. But politics ain't all the news there is. Sigh! Maybe, we too should start suscribing to both TOI and IE.
11. Sameer said...
Speaking of TOI-let paper... I guess one should take TOI as well as IE to the toilet for the early morning read. Having skimmed through the TOI, one can read IE at leisure and use TOI-let paper as it name suggests!
And on the topic of preferring IE... I guess your argument can be tweaked to explain why I use IE even though I prefer Mozilla! ;-)
12. TanTrix said...
Strange, just a few months back, I was lamenting the fall in quality of India's foremost newspapers. What was once a well-balanced newspaper, with science and art news, has now become a celebrity diary. Take any Sunday, and you can possibly guess the celebrities that would be featured- Amitabh Bachchan/The Ambanis/Amar singh/ Mallya/Shahrukh. There is more to news than these page 3 types. My personal suggestion for a good newspaper is the Hindu, though you have to forgive them for their unflinching stance. At least they have one.
Your Comments
* Please do not put off-topic comments. We reserve right to delete them at our discretion. You can post anonymously. If you are unable to see your posted comment immediately, it may have been queued for moderation. So do not submit it again. HTML formatting is allowed (only a, b, i, br, p, strong, em, ul, li & blockquote are allowed). Do not put paragraph tags. They are automatically inserted.