Shorts

Advertising, The Times of India way

Times of India sort of pioneered advertorials. It’s now pioneering advertorials within an advertorial. At least, that’s how we’d look at Delhi Times’s two-page spread today called, “Times B School”. For those not in the know, Delhi Times is an advertorial supplement. Which means most of what you read on it is paid for.

It says so, in fact, right at the top on the masthead.

Today’s Delhi Times carried two pages of what they call “BBA edition”, which basically has articles on why you should be doing a Bachelors in Business Administration and why you may want to do it in Amity in Noida or in GLA University in Mathura or Galogotias University School of Business and so on. And there’s also a survey of top 50 private BBA institutes. At the end of the second page, in the tiniest of font, they mention the publication is not responsible for any of the content on these pages and that it’s an advertorial.

If you’re struggling to read it, that’s the point.

Meanwhile, the real news section of Times of India has this story as the lead on page 5 of Times City: 2nd merit list for Bennett Univ on July 11. Bennett University is a private university owned by Times Group. This fact is not mentioned in the report except in the end it mentions that Times Group “guarantees employment for the first MBA batch, subject to satisfactory performance”. The article basically reads like an ad for Bennett University, informing us that you can now apply to it and that it offers you a world of choices.

Times Group is not the only media organisation to dabble in education, though. The Express Institute of Media Studies, India Today Media Institute, NDTV Media Institute and Pioneer Media School are only a few. Though most publications place ads of these media schools and colleges, we haven’t seen them pass off ads as news, yet. Tell us if you spot any instance.

As for college surveys, Legally India has a bunch of stories telling us why we shouldn’t be taking any of them seriously, whether in India Today or Outlook.

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