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Hindustan Times

Hindustan Times

Overview
Hindustan Times is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded in 1924 with roots in the Indian independence movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...

 of the period ("Hindustan
Hindustan
Hindustan or Indostan, literal translation "Land of River Sindhu ", is one of the popular names of South Asia. It can also mean "the land of the Hindus"...

" being a historical name for India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

).
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Encyclopedia
Hindustan Times is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded in 1924 with roots in the Indian independence movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...

 of the period ("Hindustan
Hindustan
Hindustan or Indostan, literal translation "Land of River Sindhu ", is one of the popular names of South Asia. It can also mean "the land of the Hindus"...

" being a historical name for India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

).

Hindustan Times is the flagship publication of HT Media Ltd
HT Media Ltd
HT Media Limited is an India-based company. It publishes Hindustan Times, an English daily, and Mint, a business paper daily except on Sunday. The company is also engaged into the business of providing entertainment, radio broadcast and all other related activities through its radio stations...

. In 2008 the tabloid reported its circulation to be over 1.14 million according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (India)
Audit Bureau of Circulations (India)
Audit Bureau of Circulations certifies and audits the circulations of major publications, including newspapers and magazines in India. “ABC” is a voluntary organization initiated in 1948 and is presently operating in different parts of the world...

, ranking it as the third largest daily English tabloid in India. The Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2010 revealed that HT has a readership of (34.67 lakhs), placing it as the second most widely read English tabloid in India after The Times of India
The Times of India
The Times of India is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. TOI has the largest circulation among all English-language newspaper in the world, across all formats . It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd...

. It has a wide reach in northern India, with simultaneous editions from New Delhi, Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

, Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

, Lucknow
Lucknow
Lucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....

, Patna
Patna
Paṭnā , is the capital of the Indian state of Bihar and the second largest city in Eastern India . Patna is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world...

, Ranchi
Ranchi
-Climate:Ranchi has a humid subtropical climate. However, due to its position and the forests around the city, it is known for its pleasant climate. Its climate is the primary reason why Ranchi was once the summer capital of the undivided State of Bihar...

, Bhopal and Chandigarh
Chandigarh
Chandigarh is a union territory of India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city...

. The print location of Jaipur
Jaipur
Jaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.1 million....

 was discontinued from June 2006. HT launched a youth daily, HT Next, in 2004. The Mumbai edition was launched on 14 July 2005 and the Kolkata edition was launched on early 2000.

Other sister publications of Hindustan Times are Mint
Mint (newspaper)
Mint is a business newspaper from HT Media Ltd, launched in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal on 1 February 2007. It is a premium business news publication aimed at decision makers and policy makers of the country and it is the first newspaper in India to be published in the Berliner...

(English business daily), Hindustan (Hindi Daily), Nandan
Nandan
Nandan may refer to:*Nandan, Hyōgo, a town in Mihara District, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan*Nandan , a cultural center in Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal*Meera Nandan , an Indian actress*Satya Nandan, a diplomat and lawyer...

(monthly children's magazine) and Kadambani (monthly literary magazine). The media group owns a radio channel, Fever
Fever 104 FM
Fever 104 FM is an FM radio station in India. It is available in Delhi , Mumbai , Bangalore and Kolkata, India ....

, and organises an annual Luxury Conference which has featured speakers like designer Diane von Fürstenberg
Diane von Fürstenberg
Diane von Fürstenberg, formerly Princess Diane of Fürstenberg , is a Belgian-American fashion designer best known for her iconic wrap dress. She initially rose to prominence when she married into the German princely House of Fürstenberg, as the wife of Prince Egon of Fürstenberg...

, shoemaker Christian Louboutin
Christian Louboutin
Christian Louboutin is a French footwear designer whose father is cabinetmaker Roger Louboutin and homemaker mother Irene. His siblings include three sisters, no brothers. Landscape architect Louis Benech has been his partner since 1997. Louboutin launched his line of high-end women's shoes in...

, Gucci
Gucci
The House of Gucci, better known simply as Gucci , is an Italian fashion and leather goods label, part of the Gucci Group, which is owned by French company PPR...

 CEO Robert Polet and Cartier
Cartier SA
Cartier S.A., commonly known as Cartier , is a French luxury jeweler and watch manufacturer. The corporation carries the name of the Cartier family of jewellers whose control ended in 1964 and who were known for numerous pieces including the "Bestiary" , the diamond necklace created for Bhupinder...

 MD Patrick Normand. Hindustan Times is owned by the KK Birla branch of the Birla family.

History


Hindustan Times was founded in 1924 by Master Sunder Singh Lyallpuri
Master Sunder Singh Lyallpuri
Master Sunder Singh Lyallpuri was a great Sikh personality of twentieth century. A leading soldier of Indian independence struggle, a front-ranking General of Akali Movement, a leading educationist, a formidable journalist, a great patriot and a dedicated Sikh to the core, Master Lyallpuri was...

, founder-father of the Akali Movement and the Shiromani Akali Dal
Shiromani Akali Dal
The Shiromani Akali Dal , translation: Supreme Akali Party) is a Sikh nationalist political parties based in Punjab. The current party to be recognized by the Election Commission of India is the one led by Parkash Singh Badal...

 in Punjab
Punjab (British India)
Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...

. S Mangal Singh Gill (Tesildar) and S. Chanchal Singh (Jandiala, Jullundur) were made in charge of the newspaper. Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya and Master Tara Singh
Master Tara Singh
Master Tara Singh Malhotra was a prominent Sikh political and religious leader in the first half of the 20th century...

 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
Devdas Gandhi
Devdas Gandhi was the fourth and youngest son of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was born in South Africa and returned to India with his parents as a young man. He became active in his father's movement, spending many terms in jail.He spent a lot of time with his father...

 (son of Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...

) on the editor's panel. The opening ceremony was performed by Mahatma Gandhi on 26 September 1924. The first issue was published from Naya Bazar, Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

 (now Swami Sharda Nand Marg). It contained writings and articles from C. F. Andrews, St. Nihal Singh, Maulana Mohammad Ali, C. R. Reddy (Dr. Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy), T. L. Vaswani, Ruchi Ram Sahni, Bernard Haton, Harinder Nath Chattopadhyaya, Dr Saifuddin Kichlu and Rubi Waston etc.

"Sadar Panikkar launched the Hindustan Times as a serious nationalist newspaper. As an Oxonian, historian, and litterateur, Panikkar must have hoped 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. The paper was saved from an untimely demise when Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya stepped in to realise his vision of a newspaper in Delhi." - TJS George, Lessons in Journalism, 2007, Viva Books, New Delhi.

Malaviya raised Rs. 50,000 rupees 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. Birla took full control of the paper in 1933. The paper continues to be owned by the Birla family.

It has its roots in the Indian independence movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...

 of the first half of the twentieth century and even faced the noted "Hindustan Times Contempt Case (August–November, 1941)" at Allahabad High Court
Allahabad High Court
The Allahabad High Court or the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad is a high court having jurisdiction over the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh since 1950...

. It was edited at times by many important people in India, including Devdas Gandhi
Devdas Gandhi
Devdas Gandhi was the fourth and youngest son of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was born in South Africa and returned to India with his parents as a young man. He became active in his father's movement, spending many terms in jail.He spent a lot of time with his father...

 and Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh is a prominent Indian novelist and journalist. Singh's weekly column, "With Malice towards One and All", carried by several Indian newspapers, is among the most widely-read columns in the country....

. Sanjoy Narayan, has been appointed the editor in chief of the paper and was due to take over in August 2008.

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.

HT Mumbai edition


HT Mumbai has an eight-page daily lifestyle supplement (in tabloid format) called HT Cafe. It has its education supplement called "Horizons" on Wednesdays. The paper also comes with a magazine on Sundays called Brunch. The Mumbai edition is managed by Mohit Ahuja, an alumnus of NMIMS, Bombay. The resident editor in Mumbai is Soumya Bhattacharya
Soumya Bhattacharya
Soumya Bhattacharya is an Indian journalist and author.Born in Kolkata, Bhattacharya grew up and studied in Kolkata and London. As a journalist, he has worked on The Times , The Sydney Morning Herald, India Today magazine , The Telegraph and the Hindustan Times...

.

Ownership


The Delhi-based English tabloid Hindustan Times is part of the KK Birla group and managed by Shobhana Bhartia
Shobhana Bhartia
Shobhana Bhartia is the Chairperson and Editorial Director of the Hindustan Times group, one of India's leading newspaper and media houses. She has also recently taken charge as the Pro Chancellor of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani....

, daughter of the industrialist KK Birla and granddaughter of GD Birla. It is owned by HT Media Ltd
HT Media Ltd
HT Media Limited is an India-based company. It publishes Hindustan Times, an English daily, and Mint, a business paper daily except on Sunday. The company is also engaged into the business of providing entertainment, radio broadcast and all other related activities through its radio stations...

. The KK Birla group owns a 69 per cent stake in HT Media, currently valued at Rs 834 crore. When Shobhana Bhartia joined Hindustan Times in 1986, she was the first woman chief executive of a national newspaper. Shobhana has been nominated as a Rajya Sabha MP from Congress Party.

Along with Hindustan Times, HT Media owns Desimartini
Desimartini
DesiMartini is a platform to discover and express oneself on movies, Desimartini.com invites viewers to simply talk movies! From providing information on storyline, star cast, trailers, photos to aiding interactions around movies in the form of reviews, ratings, polls, discussions and more,...

, Fever 104 FM
Fever 104 FM
Fever 104 FM is an FM radio station in India. It is available in Delhi , Mumbai , Bangalore and Kolkata, India ....

, and Mint (newspaper)
Mint (newspaper)
Mint is a business newspaper from HT Media Ltd, launched in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal on 1 February 2007. It is a premium business news publication aimed at decision makers and policy makers of the country and it is the first newspaper in India to be published in the Berliner...

.

Supplements

  • Brunch: A weekly magazine, distributed every Sunday, for the last few years. Includes entries by noted columnists like Vir Sanghvi, Seema Sharma, and a cover story. This very popular feature of the tabloid also includes an interview in the end by a famous celebrity.

  • HT City / Cafe: A popular daily supplement, freely distributed with the tabloid, includes commentary on lighter news, updates of happenings around the city in which it is distributed, coverage of local parties and celebrity gossip.

  • HT Horizons: A supplement providing information to students across the country help in the form of sample career options, career counselling, latest campus news, psychological counselling etc.

Columnists

  • Vir Sanghvi
    Vir Sanghvi
    Vir Sanghvi is an Indian print and television journalist, columnist, and talk show host. Currently, he is an Advisor, at HT Media....

    : Vir Sanghvi is an ex-editor of Hindustan Times. He writes two columns every Sunday, one entitled Counter Point for the main paper and "Rude Food" for Brunch, a weekly supplement.

  • Karan Thapar
    Karan Thapar
    Karan Thapar is one of India's noted television commentators and interviewers. He is the youngest child of General P. N. Thapar and Mrs. Bimla Thapar.-Education:...

    : Currently the president of Infotainment Television
    Infotainment Television
    Infotainment Television Pvt Ltd. or ITV is a production company based in New Delhi, India. It produces programmes for BBC, Channel News Asia, Doordarshan, CNBC and SABe TV. It was started in August 2001 by Karan Thapar, President of ITV. Karan Thapar is a very aggressive interviewer....

     and one of India's noted television commentators and interviewers, Karan Thapar writes the weekly column "Sunday Sentiments".

  • Manas Chakravarty: Capital market analyst for Mint
    Mint (newspaper)
    Mint is a business newspaper from HT Media Ltd, launched in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal on 1 February 2007. It is a premium business news publication aimed at decision makers and policy makers of the country and it is the first newspaper in India to be published in the Berliner...

    . Writes weekly column "Loose Canon" on Sundays'.

  • Poonam Saxena: She is the editor of Brunch, the Hindustan Times Sunday magazine. She does a weekly TV review column, "Small Screen".

  • Indrajit Hazra: A novelist and a senior editor at Hindustan Times, Hazra writes the weekly column "Red Herring".

  • Sonal Kalra
    Sonal Kalra
    ' is an Indian journalist-author, presently with the Hindustan Times, India's second largest national English daily.She heads Entertainment, Art and Lifestyle for the publication's daily supplement HT City in New Delhi. She also writes a popular weekly column A Calmer You in HT City...

    : An author and editor of HT City, the daily entertainment and lifestyle supplement of Hindustan Times, Writes the weekly column "A Calmer You".

  • Khushwant Singh
    Khushwant Singh
    Khushwant Singh is a prominent Indian novelist and journalist. Singh's weekly column, "With Malice towards One and All", carried by several Indian newspapers, is among the most widely-read columns in the country....

    : An editorial writer whose column "With Malice towards One and All
    With Malice towards One and All
    With Malice towards One and All was the weekly column series published by celebrated Indian author and journalist Khushwant Singh in the leading English daily of India, occupying two full length columns on the editorial page of the Saturday edition....

    " appears in the Saturday edition.

  • Barkha Dutt
    Barkha Dutt
    Barkha Dutt is an Indian TV journalist and columnist. She is currently the Group Editor, English News at New Delhi Television.Dutt gained prominence for her reportage of the Kargil War. She has won many national and international awards, including the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian...

    : Journalist and NDTV
    NDTV
    NDTV is an Indian commercial broadcasting television network founded in 1988. It was founded by Prannoy Roy, an eminent journalist and current chairman and director of NDTV Group. NDTV currently has more than 1,000 employees producing news from over twenty locations in India...

     Group editor. Writes a fortnightly column.

  • Kadambari Murali
    Kadambari Murali
    Kadambari Murali Wade is the Editor-in-Chief of Sports Illustrated India. She joined SI India in November 2010, to direct the revamp of the monthly magazine beginning with its January 2011 issue....

    : Recently ex-National Sports Editor. Kadambari held many positions within HT but most notably as National Sports Editor. She was the first woman to hold this position in any major newspaper in the world. She is now Sports Illustrated India Editor-N-Chief.
  • Samar Halarnkar
    Samar Halarnkar
    Samar Halarnkar is Editor-at-large of Hindustan Times. He also contributes to Mint, the business newspaper from the Hindustan Times group.-Career:...

    : Editor-at-large, writes on a variety of issues and also runs a food blog on the Hindustan Times website.

See also


  • Times of India
  • The Hindu
    The Hindu
    The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...

  • List of newspapers in India by circulation
  • List of newspapers in the world by circulation

External links