MxMIndia

Tag: HT

  • Hindustan Times, which has been celebrating Delhi's 100th birthday under the banner of 'I Love Delhi' throughout 2011, is getting ready for a high point on December 15.

    HT celebrates Capital’s 100th bday with conclave & campaigns

    By Akash Raha

    Hindustan Times, the top English daily in New Delhi, has been celebrating the 100th Birthday of New Delhi under the banner of ‘I Love Delhi’ throughout 2011 and is getting ready for a high point on December 15 – which is the day the foundation stone of New Delhi was laid and which paved the way for the metropolis to develop.

    Shantanu Bhanja, Vice President – Marketing, Hindustan Times, has said, “I Love Delhi is a continuing initiative for Hindustan Times since it encapsulates our feelings for this beautiful city perfectly. Every year, we have a theme for the initiative and this year, what else could it be except the Centenary of the Capital. We have done a series of events already and hope to bring it to a grand closure now.”

    Hindustan Times is organizing the New Delhi 100 Conclave (on December 15,), inviting Delhi’s most prominent citizens to share their vision of Delhi over the next 100 years. On the occasion, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit will release a coffee-table book that puts together Hindustan Times’ entire coverage of New Delhi 100 over the last year.

    Hindustan Times has a large outdoor campaign around Delhi-NCR on currently. In the campaign’s innovation, most sites have been decorated with red and blue balloons, wishing Delhi on its 100th birthday. The balloons give the city a festive and colourful look.

    Hindustan Times kicked off the celebrations for New Delhi’s 100th birthday on January 1, 2011 with an editorial series around various aspects of the evolution of the city. Chronicling how the political, cultural, social and architectural landscapes of the city have changed through the decades, this series was done at regular intervals throughout the year. One of the highlights of this series was the 100 Icons of Delhi – a listing of 100 buildings and institutions that define New Delhi as we know it today.

    In addition to the editorial features, Hindustan Times carried out several initiatives to increase reader engagement throughout the year under the Delhi 100 platform.

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare on primetime news and the morning papers

    Much admiration for glam add-ons

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Just to entertain myself, I decide to read the glamour supplements of The Times of India and Hindustan Times. Though now I am not sure whether entertainment or aggravation is what I was looking for. Since the arrival of Medianet and its variations in other newspapers, I usually ignore Bombay Times, HT Cafe and the entertainment/celebrity sections of all newspapers. Disclosure: I used to write a restaurant review for DNA After.Hrs but I haven’t seen that either for over a year and many years ago, I edited the Ahmedabad Times and Baroda Times. This takes nothing away from my life as I have minimal interest in Bollywood and tinpot celebs.

     

    So what have I learnt today? That a supermodel I had never heard of (though they told us her name) has agreed to launch a perfume (which was not named). This unnamed perfume will cost a million dollars and proceeds from sales will go to charity (named). So what do I make of this? That the supermodel paid Bombay Times, while the perfume and charity did not? Or that the editors just take the line of least resistance and do not name whoever had paying potential?

     

    This then turned into a fun game. Ekta Kapoor made an appearance (some new movie or something) on the front pages of both Bombay Times and HT Cafe. Money paid or not? Time Out has its food awards this week. HT Cafe covered it, Bombay Times did not. Because Bombay Times has its own awards or… By the way, these are the people whose pictures appeared in HT Cafe as guests or presenters at the Time Out awards: Abhay Deol, Malaika Arora Khan, Neha Dhupia, Shahana Goswami, Mahie Gill, Kalki Koechlin and Shruti Shah. Barring Deol and Dhupia (though it could be her large dress), none of the others looked like they’d eaten a meal in two weeks. Two winning chefs got a mention in the accompanying paragraph and no restaurants were mentioned (paid or not…?).

     

    A story on French producer (called veteran, which means just about anything) Marc Zermati is headlined ‘I’m not interested in Bollywood bulls**t’ is next to the Time Out story which perhaps shows someone in HT Cafe has a great sense of irony or none at all.

     

    Both Bombay Times and HT Cafe have the same people in the lead: Priyanka Chopra and Hrithik Roshan. Bombay Times says they both get ‘wet and naughty’. (Actually the headline says ‘Hrithik and PC get wet and naughty’ so for a moment I thought it had something to do with Hrithik and computer porn. The pic showed them really close, so give me a break). HT Cafe has Priyanka Chopra saying there is no “lip-lock” in this movie. So don’t get disappointed when you watch it, presumably.

     

    I was pleased to see that I no longer needed a magnifying glass to read my fortune in Bombay Times but was disappointed to see that it did not say reading “advertorial entertainment promotional features is bad for mental health”.

     

    Anyway, by this time I was so bored that I had to stop.

     

    Question for those who make them and those who read them: how do you guys do it? Full admiration!