TOI to close its Crest edition

This weekend, July 20, will be the last edition of the weekly newspaper.

Bennett Coleman & Co (BCCL) has decided to shut its weekly newspaper titled Times Crest within four years of its launch. The last edition of the weekend newspaper will be published on July 20.

Ravi Dhariwal, CEO, publishing, TOI Group, without divulging details, confirms the development to afaqs!. People close to the development reveal that the group decided to close the newspaper due to the steep decline in ad revenues.

TOI Crest was introduced in 2009 as a weekend read which picked up the important/ unusual happenings of the week, stories which a regular paper would bypass. This was not the group's first attempt at a weekly newspaper. Way back in 1880, the group had a weekly newspaper called The TOI-Illustrated Edition, which later went on to become the Illustrated Weekly of India.

A senior media expert on condition of anonymity says, "When it was launched, it certainly looked very promising. Everyone thought that with Crest the weekend newspaper category will evolve, but as the time passed it failed to pick up readership, and therefore it made no sense putting ad monies in it."

Another planner adds, "The weekend newspaper category is non-existent in the country. Majority of the Indians prefer to go out on weekends, rather than read. It was too early to launch a weekend paper in the country."

The weekend newspaper was launched with a slightly higher cover price (of Rs 6) compared to the English dailies, which are available for Rs 5. TOI Crest Edition followed the long form of journalism, where the articles were detailed and analytical in nature.

The newspaper is printed from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, Ahmedabad, Ranchi, Patna and Hyderabad.