''The Telegraph'' is an Indian English

daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

founded and continuously published in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

since 7 July 1982. It is published by the

ABP Group ABP Pvt. Ltd. is an Indian media conglomerate headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal. It was established in 1922. History The company in recent years did mass layoffs at various times. Current assets Newspapers * ''Anandabazar Patrika'' � ...

and the newspaper competes with ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

''. The newspaper is the eighth most-widely read

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

newspaper in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

as per ''

Indian Readership Survey The Indian Readership Survey (IRS) is the largest continuous readership research study in the world with an annual sample size exceeding 2.56 lakh (256,000) respondents. IRS collects a comprehensive range of demographic information and provides ext ...

'' (IRS) 2019. ''The Telegraph'' has three editions

South Bengal South Bengal ( bn, দক্ষিণবঙ্গ/দক্ষিণ বাংলা) is a term used for the southern parts of Bengal including Southern Bangladesh and Southern West Bengal, state in India. The Bangladesh part denotes the Khulna ...

and North Bengal.

History

''The Telegraph'' was founded on 7 July 1982. The design director of London's ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'', Edwin Taylor, designed the newspaper and provided a standard in design and editing. In 31 years, it has become the largest-circulation

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

daily in the eastern region published from

. In 1982,

M. J. Akbar Mobasher Jawed Akbar (born 11 January 1951) is an Indian journalist and politician, who served as the Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs until 17 October 2018. Akbar is a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, and was inducted i ...

used to edit and design the daily newspaper; thus it had a major impact on

newspaper journalism A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

. ''The Telegraph'' is published by media group Ananda Publishers closely associated with ABP Pvt. Ltd; the group also published ''

Anandabazar Patrika ''Anandabazar Patrika'' (Bengali: আনন্দবাজার পত্রিকা, ) is an Indian Bengali-language daily newspaper owned by the ABP Group. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1 million cop ...

'' (a Bengali language newspaper) since 13 March 1922. Apart from newspapers the group even published Bengali and English periodicals like ''

Anandamela ''Anandamela'', ''Anondamela'', or ''Anondomela'' (Bengali: আনন্দমেলা) is a children's periodical in the Bengali language published by the ABP Group from Kolkata, India. History and profile The first issue of ''Anandamela'' ...

'', ''

Unish-Kuri ''Unish-Kuri'' is one of the youngest fortnightly magazines published from ABP Ltd, publishers of ''Anandabazar Patrika'' and ''The Telegraph'', of Kolkata, India. It took off as a new division or wing of '' Anandamela'', the 33-year-old childr ...

'', '' Sananda'', '' Anandalok'', ''

Desh magazine ''Desh'' ( bn, দেশ) is an esteemed Bengali language literary magazine published by the ABP Group from India on the 2nd and the 17th of every month. This magazine, which is in publication since 1933, has been edited by editors like Saga ...

'', ''The Telegraph in Schools'' and ''Career''. ''

Businessworld ''BusinessWorld'' is a business newspaper in the Philippines with a nationwide circulation of more than 117,000 (as of March 2014). Founded in 1967 as ''Business Day'', it is Southeast Asia's first daily business newspaper. History ''Busin ...

'', which was initially part of the ABP group, has been sold to Anurag Batra, of Exchange4Media and Vikram Jhunjhunwala, an investment banker for an undisclosed amount. The paper currently has three editions Calcutta, South Bengal and North Bengal. Previous editions include

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

edition (

Guwahati Guwahati (, ; formerly rendered Gauhati, ) is the biggest city of the Indian state of Assam and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the ...

split),

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...

edition (

Jamshedpur Jamshedpur (, ) or Tatanagar is the largest and most populous city in Jharkhand and the first planned industrial city in India. It is a Notified Area Council and Municipal Corporation and also the headquarter of the East Singhbhum district. It ...

and

Ranchi Ranchi (, ) is the capital of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Ranchi was the centre of the Jharkhand movement, which called for a separate state for the tribal regions of South Bihar, northern Odisha, western West Bengal and the eastern area ...

splits),

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

and Bhubaneshwar editions. Bhubaneshwar & Patna Editions ceased on 14 December 2018 and Northeast and Jharkhand editions on 20 May 2020

Editorial stance

According to an analysis of the major English language newspapers in India, during the run up to the

2014 Indian general election General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 2019 ...

, the political coverage of ''The Telegraph'' was found to be less aligned in favor of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

and less negative of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

relative to that of ''

'' and the ''

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Lyall ...

''. In a 2020 ''

Newslaundry ''Newslaundry'' is an Indian media watchdog that provides media critique, reportage and satirical commentary. It was founded in 2012 by Abhinandan Sekhri, Madhu Trehan and Prashant Sareen, all of whom earlier worked in print or television j ...

'' article, the paper's coverage of the response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

by the

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...

and that of the Bengal government were contrasted; according to it the paper provided more critical coverage of the former and less of the latter in its editorials and frontpage headlines. In an interview to ''Outlook'', ''The Telegraph'' editor R. Rajagopal rejected the conception that it was harsher on the former and soft of the latter, stating that the scope of the events decide the prominence they receive in the paper which is being noticed because only a few others are providing similar coverage and that the tendency among media outlets to seek a

false balance False balance, also bothsidesism, is a media bias in which journalists present an issue as being more balanced between opposing viewpoints than the evidence supports. Journalists may present evidence and arguments out of proportion to the act ...

just to be able to claim neutrality was detrimental to journalism.

References

External links

*
''The Telegraph'' e-paper
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Telegraph ABP Group English-language newspapers published in India Newspapers published in Kolkata Daily newspapers published in India Newspapers published in Patna Publications established in 1982 1982 establishments in West Bengal

History

Editorial stance

See also

References

External links