TOI, Maharashtra Times to go all-colour

Bennett, Coleman & Co. (BCCL) has decided to make its two dailies – The Times of India and Maharashtra Times, all colour. The change will happen for all editions of TOI starting with the Mumbai edition. The main edition of TOI Delhi became all-colour in February 2003.

Rahul Kansal, brand director, The Times of India, says, “The newspapers are getting more visual oriented with lots of info-graphics, illustrations, and photographs as part of the stories. They add life to the story, and also readers do not consider newspapers as a tense grey matter anymore. All these have increased the need of getting all colour.”

Meanwhile, the group’s Marathi daily, Maharashtra Times will also get all colour by the end of this month.

Ranjeet Kate, vice-president, brand, Maharashtra Times, says, “Getting coloured is the latest trend in the industry. And we are implementing it phase by phase.”

Currently only the front and the back page of the main edition are coloured. With this revamp, all pages of this Marathi daily will get coloured.”

Also, the daily supplement, ‘Times International’, will now be part of the main edition, and get all colour, while the other supplements such as education times, property times will also get all colour.

About the investment cost that TOI had to incur to implement the plan, Kansal says, “The investment costs were huge. And taking the size of the Times group and its publications, it actually took us about two years to work on the project.” He declined to reveal the amount of investment.

Kansal also declined to comment on the increase in ad-rates after the dailies go all colour.

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