Who drives whom?!

An interesting observation I couldn't even forcefully ignore, give the following article a thought.
Times of India, 'a' sorry "The" Leading newspaper of the country, TOI was and is considered a status symbol. If you read the Times, yes then you are talking, else sorry! Anyways, thats besides the point.

I remember, when at school, we had a separate lecture assigned once a week, where we read several editorials from the TOI. Initially from what I can recollect, TOI was a simple looking, serious kind of newspaper. With initial pages filled with the latest news, then followed by editorials, then business and finally sports. The pattern is still very much the same.

But then as times changed the paper changed too.. A dash of color was added, there were colorful pictures and advertisements on the first and the last pages of the newspaper. Then slowly supplements were added, with the aim of covering city briefs. Slowly the city news was shifted over to the main TOI and the city supplements were converted to 'Page 3' supplements, they were full of celebrities and the news of the starry world. There were talks about designer wears, bollywood gossips, hollywood gossips, grooming tips from celebrities, costly spa treatments, exotic holiday cruises and the list goes on.

Slowly steadily things were fed into the public mind, their views, their thinking was slowly being modified. It was a hunger first created by them and also at the same time fed by them.

This was followed by the launch of the much talked about entertainment channel, Zoom ...

Interesting business strategy isn't it?! In fact very simple yet at the same time very clever, and extremely effective! Kudos.. to the Times group, they drive us, we don't drive them!