The Times of India’s final frontier

Even for a time when a newspaper is more spectacle than information source, the Delhi edition of the Times of India (TOI) on 30 January this year was remarkable, featuring stories on its front page so outlandish that a reader's first impression would have been of a day of dedication to tomfoolery, to compete with the hoary antiquity of All Fools' Day. Readers who managed to negotiate the length of the page and arrive at its anchor space were rewarded with an answer to the mystery. TOI, it transpired, had engineered a harmless hoax to jolt its readership into an awareness of the multitude of possibilities that the future held in store. Underlining its intention to think beyond the limitations of the present, the paper had datelined its issue for the year 2025.

TOI's stated purpose with the 30 January issue was to drive the agenda of transforming Delhi from a rather slovenly, unkempt city, into a true world metropolis. Together with this foray into the consciousness of the capital city, the TOI group (otherwise known by its formal corporate appellation of Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd., or BCCL) also announced Times Now, a satellite television channel covering news and current affairs. Launched in association with the international news agency Reuters, Times Now came as the finale of a rapid process of diversification that had seen the group venture into FM radio, music publishing and retailing, internet commerce, and the lifestyle and entertainment segments of satellite TV broadcasting. By extending its reach into the final frontiers, the company was fully geared to consolidate its position as India's dominant media entity, leveraging its strengths in print, television and radio for the ultimate in commercial synergy.