What has changed for The Hindu with the launch of The Times of India in Chennai?
It’s good, we welcome competition. The Times of India is a major newspaper. For us, circulation has actually grown. As a result of TOI coming in, we lowered our cover price from Rs3.20 to Rs2.50. We would have liked it higher, but Rs2.50 is pretty good. They sell at Rs2 and they have lots of promotions going on. But your circulation has actually gone up? Substantially. I don’t know the latest figures, but by more than 35,000 in the Chennai market alone. I never put down The Times of India. I learn a lot from them. There are other papers that are non-serious, but not TOI. I not only respect it, I read it with a great deal of interest. There is a lot of criticism out there (against TOI) but it’s a serious newspaper. You may not agree with some of the views, some of the things, and they may not like what we do also. But it’s a major newspaper. You have opposed the liberalization of the media sector for long. The recent change in foreign direct investment (FDI) policy may mean greater FDI
