... and HT retaliates with the curious case of the missing papers

The feud between the two newspaper brands persists, as HT responds to TOI's damaging video with an accusatory article of its own.

Yesterday's Hindustan Times (New Delhi edition) published an article titled Whodunit: Removing HT market copies to win 'morning challenge'?

It was in direct retaliation to
a social media video
, released by its nemesis The Times of India, that openly questioned the credibility of Hindustan Times' readership and circulation figures. The recently released video also scoffed at the IRS 2013, though it is no longer in abeyance.

In its retaliatory article, HT brings forth the issue of 'readers complaining about copies not reaching them.' The piece goes on to allege that as per HT's circulation department, a 'group of people' has surreptitiously been buying 1,000s of copies of HT (at double the cover price, if needed) from its distribution centers, at dawn. According to HT, this is a 'seemingly organised attempt to keep HT copies from reaching its readers.'

Without naming TOI, HT states that the very weekend its copies went missing from the market, 'a competition newspaper' initiated the 'Morning Challenge'. This leaves no room for doubt regarding the paper HT is referring to, for the Morning Challenge is nothing but TOI's recent advertisement, in which it asserts that 'the truth' about the readership and circulation of the two papers will emerge at 6:00 am. That's around the time newspapers are typically circulated across the country.

The ad in TOI famously goes on to say, 'You may have read some claims and counter claims about readership and circulation of English dailies in Delhi and NCR. But the truth simply is: for the 'regular' copies of the TOI and HT (i.e. fully loaded copies that carry supplements and are listed in ABC as single or combo) TOI is 38% ahead of HT.'

Interestingly, the otherwise neglected ABC, or Audit Bureau of Circulation, has found frequent mention in this war of words, one we suspect is far from over.