Big Business
Higher, faster, further – India’s largest English-language daily newspaper is committed to this principle and continues to expand. Its machine equipment keeps on increasing with no end in sight. On its sweeping success path, the company repeatedly relies on manroland, its trusted long-term partner.
The Company – old but never old-fashioned. Times of India was established
in 1838 under the name Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce, and served as the newspaper of the British colonists in the West Indies. Its contents focused primarily on news of Europe and the Americas, mainly those concerning Indian trade. As early as 1850, the newspaper was published daily, and in 1861 it was renamed Times of India. In its founding years in the 19th century already, the newspaper had roughly 800 employees. Today, with a total circulation of 3.4 million newspapers daily, Times of India is not only India’s leading newspaper but the world’s largest english language newspaper published in broadsheet format. Currently, Times of India operates 15 printing centers across the country in locations including Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and others, and it belongs to the renowned media group Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. The Group produces more than five million copies daily.
Boundless Boom Market
The Market. India has the potential to develop into the world’s third-largest economy. Within the past few years, the Indian market for print products has become a veritable boom market. For more than ten years now, the state has been successfully combating illiteracy. To date, roughly 100 million Indians have learned to read and write – a development that has greatly benefited the print industry, including Times of India. In India today, new newspapers are
published on an almost daily basis, creating a steadily growing demand for printed products and thus printing presses. Keeping up is therefore crucial to stay competitive in India.
The Indian newspaper market dates back more than 200 years. India’s first newspaper, the Bengal Gazette, was first published in 1780. The Bombay Samachar, the oldest newspaper still in circulation, was first published in 1822. Over a third of India’s 44,000 newspapers are Hindi publications, of which around 28 percent are daily newspapers and most are written in English. In the last three years, according to information by the Indian Audit
Bureau of Circulation, the total newspaper readership increased by 21 million and has now reached the 200 million mark. However, the market potential
is far from fully utilized – more than 300 million multilingual Indians are not newspaper readers yet. To gain this readership, large publishing companies such as Times of India are investing in technology and modern systems.
The Presses. Since 1996, Times of India has been relying on manroland for its printing technology, when it invested in two new GEOMAN systems for the first time. In 1997, Times of India printed the first color photo and has since steadily increased its number of four-color pages in line with its desire to present an extraordinary yet serious image.
Trust in color. However, the company took the biggest step towards
success in 2004 when it decided to invest in three COLORMAN and one REGIOMAN from manroland. The new newspaper printing systems enable the company to print entirely in four color, hence the Delhi issue of Times of India was India’s first newspaper to be printed in full color – quite a sensation.
Times of India also changed the design of the newspaper to increase reading pleasure. The main aim of the newspaper was to increase the value addition on a daily basis by continous improvements. Thus, all new investments and changes are part of an ongoing improvement process.
The company has continued to expand steadily in recent years. For example, by investing in three COLORMAN presses, two for the new location in Mumbai and one for the already existing Delhi site.
The new presses in Mumbai are distinguished by the fact that they are the first newspaper presses in India that are completely equipped with AUROSYS, manroland’s fully automated reel handling system that can be optimally adjusted to the requirements of Times of India. The performance
range includes storage, unpacking, reel preparation for splicing, automatic reel splicer supply, as well as disposal of reel stub, sleeves, and waste. All in all, offering an entire range of advantages that further support the market leadership of Times of India.
Presses, presses, and more presses. But this was not enough. In 2007, the company invested in three additional REGIOMAN presses. The future of the partnership is also secure, as Times of India signed a twelve-year maintenance contract for all presses in 2006.
Automation – for sure! Now Times of India has invested in another outstanding technology to further increase profitability and efficiency: APL (Automatic Plate Loading) from manroland. The new system significantly shortens changeover times, a complete plate change now only takes 3 minutes. The robotic plate change system will be installed at the two COLORMAN presses at the Thane printing site.
Products for Millions
The Product. Times of India’s understanding of and passion for good and serious journalism never changes.
Times of India is the world’s largest morning broadsheet Englishlanguage daily newspaper, larger than any American or British publication. How is this possible?
It could be presumed that this is due to India’s large and rapidly growing population. But this is far from the truth: the number of English-speaking Indians is 70 million and thus much less than the population of the USA or Great Britain.
The difference is as follows: In western markets, the readership of specific newspapers is strongly fragmented, whereas Times of India is the preferred medium for 30 percent of all English-speaking readers in India. Its circulation is more than double that of its closest competitor and is comparable to that of the leading regional newspapers of India.
The secret of Times of India’s success is its effort to provide true highlights and news coupled with the highest quality of editing as well as printing. This is precisely what puts the newspaper in first place!