TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, JUNE 26, 2005 12:39:54 AM ] Surf 'N' Earn -Sign innow NEW DELHI: With more than 2.4 million copies sold every day, The Times of India has been certified by the Audit Bureau of Circulations as having become the world's largest selling English broadsheet newspaper — ahead of giants like USA Today and Wall Street Journal, Times London and The Guardian.
How did TOI manage this feat? Traditionally, India has led world rankings for things we would rather hide — illiteracy, poverty, disease, population and so on.
On various economic parameters, our performance has tended to be more modest: we account for less than 1 percent of world trade, have only one company from the private sector in the Fortune 500 list, are not among the first 10 in the world in product categories like televisions, automobiles or mobile phones.
Similarly, our leading brands in diverse categories are not yet in the big league. For instance, the largest Indian car brand has volumes that are less than 7 percent of General Motors' sales.
The biggest Indian pharmaceutical company is not among the 20 largest in the world ranked by sales.
The country's biggest telecom service provider has a subscriber base which is just over 10 percent of China Telecom's subscriber base.
They will surely get there as India's economic might uncoils, but as for now, they're outside the premier league.
So how has India gained leadership in English print news media? It's not as if the vast population of India has helped make TOI's unique achievement easier.
On the contrary, the absolute size of the available English-literate audience in India — at just about 60-70 million — is far smaller than in markets like the USA (200 million plus) or the UK.
The difference is this: unlike in these western markets, where readership of newspapers is highly fragmented and no one brand has been able to build a high share of the large available audience, The Times of India is the newspaper of choice for 30 percent of all English readers in India.
TOI's circulation is over twice its nearest competitor and comparable with that of the leading regional language dailies, even though Indian languages are otherwise clearly the medium of choice. For instance, on television, the highest reach of any English programme is less than one-twentieth that of any of the top Hindi programmes.
What TOI's latest accomplishment really highlights is the importance of establishing a connect with readers' immediate lives. Of shedding traditional journalistic biases in favour of a reader-centric approach to news reporting. It is a victory, therefore, for individual readers like you.
And, of course, a victory for India. For the masthead of India has now become the masthead of the world!
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1152489.cms