Appendix II

Profiles of newspapers

The Times of India

The Times of India, which completed more than 150 years, began as a

bi-weekly news Journal on November 3, 1838. Initially, it was known

as Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce which was edited by an

Irish doctor J.E. Brennan. It was difficult to bring out a paper in those

days. The paper was amalgamated with Bombay Standard, Bombay

Telegraph and Bombay Courier and became Times of India at

instance of Robert Knight. He had correctly, assessed the need of the

hour. He had developed an uncanny flair for selecting news which

everyone wanted to read. Never before had any publisher offered a

newspaper to the public on such a grand scale (Krishna Murthy,

1966:144). With passage of time, the paper gained popularity and

became financially viable. Subsequently, owners and editors changed

and distinguished editors served the paper. Later Thomas Jewell

Bennett who became the editor reshaped the paper and improved it.

Consequently, he became the sole proprietor. He brought F M

Coleman, master printer with wide experience in newspaper

production. Both succeeded in their attempt and the paper was a

success. They formed a joint stock company known as Bennett

Coleman & Co., Ltd. A significant event in the history of the

newspaper was its transfer to Indian owners in 1946. Seth

Ramakrishna Dalmia, an industrialist bought the paper.

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Subsequently, his son-in-law, Ashok Jain inherited it. The newspaper

is the largest circulated daily in the country with 17 editions. It has

sister publications like Filmfare, Femina, Navbharat Times, a daily in

Hindi and others. The Times was served by stalwart editors like

N.J.Nanporia, Sham Lal, Girilal Jain and others. The present consulting

editor is Dilip Padgoankar.

The present management of The Times Group has been instrumental

in changing the outlook of Indian journalism. In India, as is elsewhere

in the world, the Editor of a newspaper has traditionally been

considered as the most notable position in a newspaper set up. The

Times of India, however, changed this in the early 1990s, in keeping

with the management policy of treating the newspaper as just

another brand in the market. The main newspaper and its many sub-

editions are now run by editors who are appointed within the ranks

and the company gives equal chance to everyone to occupy the

editor's seat. The Times Group also places equal focus and

importance to every department and function - which has made it a

professional entity and ensured its place as the most profitable

newspaper in the country.In late 2006, Times Group acquired

Vijayanand Printers Limited (VPL). VPL used to publish two Kannada

newspapers Vijay Karnataka and Usha Kiran and an English daily

Vijay Times. Vijay Karnataka was the leader in the Kannada

newspaper segment then. In January 2007, the Kannada edition of

The Times of India was launched in Bangalore and in April 2008 the

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Chennai edition was launched. Their main rivals in India are The

Hindu and Hindustan Times which hold second and third position by

circulation.

The Hindustan Times

The Hindustan Times (HT) was founded in 1924 with roots in

the Indian independence movement of the period by Sunder Singh

Lyallpuri, founder-father of the Akali movement and the Shiromani

Akali Dalin Punjab Province. S Mangal Singh Gill (Tesildar) and S.

Chanchal Singh (Jandiala, Jalandhar) were made in charge of the

newspaper. Madan Mohan Malaviya and Tara Singh were among the

members of the Managing Committee. The Managing Chairman and

Chief Patron was Master Sunder Singh Lyallpuri. K. M. Panikkar was

its first editor with Devdas Gandhi (son of Mahatma Gandhi) on the

editor's panel. The opening ceremony was performed by Mahatma

Gandhi on September 26, 1924. The first issue was published from

Naya Bazar, Delhi (now Swami Sharda Nand Marg). It contained

writings and articles from C. F. Andrews, St. Nihal Singh, Maulana

Mohammad Ali, Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy, T. L. Vaswani, Ruchi

Ram Sahni, Bernard Haton, Harinder Nath Chattopadhyaya, Dr

Saifuddin Kichlu and Rubi Waston etc.

The Akali Sikhs had initially started this paper with a view to

acquiring the religious shrines from the Mahants. The Sikh Maharaja

of Nabha also provided financial assistance to the paper. It was ably

edited by the eminent intellectual and wise and able administrator

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Sardar K.M. Panikkar. Sadar Panikkar launched the Hindustan

Times as a serious nationalist newspaper hoping to make his paper

eventually more than an Akali sheet. He became the editor and funds

flowed freely from activist Akali patrons. He exerted himself

strenuously, but the paper made very little headway. In two years

Panikkar could not take the print order any higher than 3,000. By

then the Akali movement appeared to lose steam and funds dried up.

Within four years due to financial constraints it was up for sale. With

Gandhi in jail, a difference arose in the Congress with regards to the

methods of non co-operation and a new party called Swaraj Party

was formed within the Congress under the Stewardship of Pandit

Motilal Nehru and C.R. Das. To propagate their ideas and organize

their party they decided to have a party press. The Hindustan Times

was available and this came handy. Madan Mohan Malviya bought

the paper with the help of Lala Lajpat Rai. The paper was saved from

an untimely demise when Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya stepped in

to realise his vision of a newspaper in Delhi.

Funds were collected from the public to stabilize the paper. Malaviya

raised Rs 50,000 to acquire the Hindustan Times along with the help

of nationalist leaders Lajpat Rai and M. R. Jayakar and industrialist G.

D. Birla, who paid most of the cash. From private ownership funds

were transferred to a company in which Ghanshyam Das Birla

became a director buying many shares in the company in 1927.

Sardar Pannikar resigned and editorship was taken over by Jairam

Daulatram and after him J.N. Sahni and Pothan Joseph edited the

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paper till 1932 when the entire company of Hindustan Times came in

the hands of G. D. Birla. Birla took full control of the paper in 1933.

The paper began to support the policy of Indian National Congress.

During this time S. N. Bharathi who became the editor did a great deal

in popularizing the Congress ideals The paper continues to be owned

by the Birla family. It was edited at times by many important people

in India, besides Devdas Gandhi, Sri Mulgaonkar, B.G.Verghese

and Khushwant Singh.(Krishnamurthy, 1966)

Devdas Gandhi took over as the managing editor of the Hindustan

Times in 1940. Devdas Gandhi son of Mahatma Gandhi assisted his

father in the running of the Young India. Devadas improved the

newspaper on its mechanical side as well as the editorial. The

newspaper which considered as the spokesman of the Indian

government became free after India attained independence. Devdas

Gandhi was elected President of the All-India Newspaper Editor’s

Conference in 1947 and led the Indian Delegation to England, Canada,

Switzerland and United States to get newsprint quota for the Indian

newspapers. It was due to his efforts that the Indian papers could got

enough of newsprint for their publication in later forties and fifties.

The publication activities of the newspaper were expanded during his

time. The Hindustan, a daily and the Hindustan Sapthahik, a weekly in

Hindi were launched. The Evening News, as evening edition of the

Hindustan Times, became popular evening newspaper of New Delhi.

The Overseas Edition of the Hindustan Times, a weekly digest printed

on light-weight paper, is even now selling in most countries of the

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world for circulation among our nationals abroad. Devdas Gandhi

remained the editor of the Hindustan Times till the death in 1958.

(ibid)

The newspaper is presently owned by Rajya Sabha M.P., Shobhana

Bhartia. It is the flagship publication of HT Media. Hindustan Times is

one of the largest newspapers in India, by circulation. It is popular

in North India, with simultaneous editions from New

Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow,Patna, Ranchi, Bhopal,

and Chandigarh. The print location of Jaipur was discontinued from

June 2006 and that of Nagpur edition was discontinued from

September 1997. HT launched a youth daily, HT Next, in 2004. The

Mumbai edition was launched on 14 July 2005 and the Kolkata

edition was launched in early 2000. Other sister publications

of Hindustan Times are Mint (English business

daily), Hindustan (Hindi Daily), Nandan (monthly children's

magazine) and Kadambani (monthly literary magazine). The media

group owns a radio channel, Fever 104.0 FM. Recently the editorial

page has seen a major makeover and has been named "comment" to

bring in more flexibility and some-what less seriousness to the page.

Amar Ujala

Amar Ujala Publications Ltd., a print media company, publishes a

daily newspaper in India. Its flagship Hindi daily newspaper is Amar

Ujala that is published in 19 editions in states of Uttar Pradesh,

Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and

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Haryana, as well as union territories of New Delhi and Chandigarh.

The company also publishes Saflata, a niche monthly magazine

providing study material for civil services and other examinations;

Safalta Samyiki, which offers information relating to general

knowledge and current affairs; and Chaupal, a Hindi language

magazine focused on agriculture. Amar Ujala was founded on 18 April

1948 by Shri Dori Lal Agarwal and Late Shri Murari Lal Maheswari as

a 4-page newspaper with a circulation of 2576 copies with an

objective of promoting social awakening and introducing a feeling of

responsibility among the citizens of a recently independent India.

Nineteen editions of the newspaper have a readership of 2.59 million

readers a day by the end of 2014. The media group has 18 publishing

facilities with a total installed capacity of printing roughly 3.78

million copies of the newspaper each day. Advertising accounts for 67

percent of the revenues of Amar Ujala Publications with

subscriptions bringing in a little less than a quarter of the total

turnover (23 per cent), the remainder coming from the company's

other ventures. In September 1979, the original firm set up by the

group's founders, National Journals, was split into two partnership

firms: Amar Ujala Publications and Amar Ujala Prakashan were

created for conducting the group's operations in Agra and Bareilly

respectively. Rajul Maheshwari and Sneh Lata Maheshwari were

among the partners in both firms together with members of the

Agarwal family. The partners of the firms changed several times till a

closely-held private limited company, Amar Ujala Publications

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Limited, was registered in Agra in 2001. Amar Ujala Prakashan,

registered in Bareilly, then metamorphosed into Amar Ujala

Prakashan Ltd and was later merged into Amar Ujala Publications Ltd

by an amalgamation order sanctioned by the Allahabad high court on

July 9, 2004.

Starting from that modest beginning, 20 years later Amar Ujala

achieved a circulation of 20,000 copies and was servicing over 14

districts in Western Uttar Pradesh. Growing slowly, but steadily, the

turn of the century saw Amar Ujala as one of the top 3 dailies of

India. Currently, Amar Ujala publishes a 16 page daily issue with

more colour pages in every edition. In addition to this, Amar Ujala

also has in offering for readers three colour magazines, namely a)

Career and Education - A weekly career magazine for youth every

Wednesday. b) Rupayan - Aapki Personal Friend: An all new weekly

magazine for women every Friday. c) Sunday Anand - Bole to DIRECT

Bollywood se: A completely new look film magazine every Sunday.

Dainik Jagran

Dainik Jagran, the largest circulated Hindi daily is published from 37

centres. The newspaper is owned by Jagran Prakashan Limited, a

publishing house listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and

the National Stock Exchange of India. Jagran Prakashan Limited also

acquired Mid Day in 2010 and Naiduniya in 2012. The newspaper

was launched in 1942 in Jhansi during the Indian freedom

struggle (Quit India movement) by Puran Chandra Gupta, a

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nationalist, to voice his nationalistic sentiments. Puran Chandra's

legacy was carried forward by literary stalwarts like Shri Narendra

Mohan who has carried forward the paper’s editorial legacy. In 1947,

a second edition made its appearance in Kanpur. In a succession of

planned expansions, Rewa and Bhopal editions were added in 1953

and 1956. Gorakhpur was added in 1975, followed

by Varanasi, Allahabad, Meerut, Agra and Bareilly in the 1980s, and

finally Delhi in 1990. After this Dainik Jagran ventured out

to Uttarakhand, Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab,Jammu, Himachal

Pradesh and West Bengal. Puran Chandra's vision was also realised

through the group's educational initiatives at both the junior and

senior levels.

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