The Hindustan Times is headquartered in Delhi, and has editions in many towns in North India. It launched its Mumbai edition in July 2005. However, many of their better news stories originate from Delhi and the paper provides good coverage of Northern India.
A standard weekday issue of the Hindustan Times costs Rs 2.50 at the newspaper stand. However, they offer highly discounted subscription rates – renewal of your subscription for Rs 350 for 2 years, effectively you pay less than 50 paisa per paper per day. There are some promotional schemes, where the subscription rates are even lower. The paperwallah ( the person who delivers the newspaper) complains that he finds it difficult to get his money from Hindustan Times, after he submits the subscription coupons.
The newspaper usually consists of 60+ pages divided among its various supplements – HT2 (for business and international news), HT Yellow Pages (classified advertisements and advertorials), HT Cafe ( Tabloid style gossip and lifestyle). On Sunday , they have a supplement called Brunch which has some articles and on Saturdays they have a supplement on luxury items . Like other newspapers , they have weekly supplements on education, careers and real estate.
Like most of the Indian media, Hindustan Times gives a lot of coverage to film stars, cricketers, NRIs, MBAs and propagates the myth of India as an “IT Superpower”. Some of their correspondents have a good writing style, but the news is often biased. It seems to be sustained by advertising at present, let’s see how long it lasts.