INTRODUCTION
The Hindu is an English –language, Indian daily newspaper. Headquartered at Chennai (formerly called Madras), The Hindu was published weekly when it was launched in 1878, and started publishing daily in 1889. According to the Indian Readership Survey in 2012, it was the third most widely read English newspaper in India (after the Times of India and Hindustan Times), with a readership of 2.2 million people. The Hindu has its largest base of circulation in southern India, especially in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and it is also the most widely read English daily in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, The Hindu had a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and annual turnover reached almost $200 million in 2010. Subscription and advertisement are major sources of income. The Hindu became, in 1995, the first Indian newspaper to offer an online edition. It is printed at 18 locations—Chennai, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Madurai, Noida, Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Vijayawada, Mangaluru, Tiruchirapalli, Kolkata, Hubli, Mohali, Allahabad, Kozhikode and Lucknow
. The Hindu was founded in Madras on 20 September 1878 as a weekly by four law students (T. T. Rangachariar, P. V. Rangachariar, D. Kesava Rao Pantulu and N. Subba Rao Pantulu) led by G. Subramania Iyer, a school teacher from Tanjore district and M. Veeraraghavachariar, a lecturer at Pachaiyappa's College. The Hindu was started to support the campaign of Sir T. Muthuswamy Iyer for a judgeship at the Madras High Court and to counterbalance the propaganda against him carried out by the Anglo-Indian press. The Hindu was one of the many newspapers of the period established to protest against the discriminatory policies of the British government in India. About 80 copies of the inaugural issue were printed at Srinidhi Press, Georgetown on one rupee and twelves annas of borrowed money. Subramania Iyer became the first editor and Veeraraghavachariar, the first managing director of the newspaper. The paper was initially liberal in its outlook and supported the continuation of British rule in India. The paper initially printed from Srinidhi Press but later moved on Scottish Press, then, The Hindu Press, Mylapore, and finally to the National Press on Mount Road. Started as a weekly newspaper, the paper became a tri-weekly in 1883 and an evening daily in 1889. A single copy of the newspaper was priced at four annas.
The offices moved to rented premises at 100 Mount Road on 3 December 1883. The newspaper started printing at its own press there, named "The National Press," which was established on borrowed capital as public subscriptions were not forthcoming. The building itself became The Hindu's in 1892, after the Maharaja of Vizianagaram, Pusapati Ananda Gajapati Raju, gave The National Press a loan both for the building and to carry out needed expansion.
Its editorial stances have earned The Hindu the nickname, the Maha Vishnu of Mount Road. "From the new address, 100 Mount Road, which to remain The Hindu's home till 1939, there issued a quarto-size paper with a front-page full of advertisements—a practice that came to an end only in 1958 when it followed the lead of its idol, the pre-Thomson Times—and three back pages also at the service of the advertiser. In between, there were more views than news." After 1887, when the annual session of Indian National Congress was held in Madras, the paper's coverage of national news increased significantly, and led to the paper becoming an evening daily starting 1 April 1889.
The partnership between Veeraraghavachariar and Subramania Aiyer was dissolved in October 1898. Aiyer quit the paper and Veeraraghavachariar became the sole owner and appointed C. Karunakara Menon as editor. However, The Hindu's adventurousness began to decline in the 1900s and so did its circulation, which was down to 800 copies when the sole proprietor decided to sell out. The purchaser was The Hindu's Legal Adviser from 1895, S. Kasturi Ranga Iyengar, a politically ambitious lawyer who had migrated from a Kumbakonam village to practise in Coimbatore and from thence to Madras. Kasturi Ranga Iyengar's ancestors had served the courts of Vijayanagar and Mahratta Tanjore. He traded law, in which his success was middling but his interest minimal, for journalism, pursuing his penchant for politics honed in Coimbatore and by his association with the `Egmore Group' led by C. Sankaran Nair and Dr T.M. Nair.

Modern history
In the late 1980s when its ownership passed into the hands of the family's younger members, a change in political leaning was observed. Worldpress.org lists The Hindu as a left-leaning independent newspaper. Joint managing director N. Murali said in July 2003, "It is true that our readers have been complaining that some of our reports are partial and lack objectivity. But it also depends on reader beliefs." N. Ram was appointed on 27 June 2003 as its editor-in-chief with a mandate to "improve the structures and other mechanisms to uphold and strengthen quality and objectivity in news reports and opinion pieces", authorised to "restructure the editorial framework and functions in line with the competitive environment". On 3 and 23 September 2003, the reader's letters column carried responses from readers saying the editorial was biased. An editorial in August 2003 observed that the newspaper was affected by the 'editorialising as news reporting' virus, and expressed a determination to buck the trend, restore the professionally sound lines of demarcation, and strengthen objectivity and factuality in its coverage.
In 1987–88 The Hindu's coverage of the Bofors arms deal scandal, a series of document-backed exclusives set the terms of the national political discourse on this subject. The Bofors scandal broke in April 1987 with Swedish Radio alleging that bribes had been paid to top Indian political leaders, officials and Army officers in return for the Swedish arms manufacturing company winning a hefty contract with the Government of India for the purchase of 155 mm howitzers. During a six-month period the newspaper published scores of copies of original papers that documented the secret payments, amounting to $50 million, into Swiss bank accounts, the agreements behind the payments, communications relating to the payments and the crisis response, and other material. The investigation was led by part-time correspondent of The Hindu, Chitra Subramaniam reporting from Geneva, and was supported by Ram in Chennai. The scandal was a major embarrassment to the party in power at the centre, the Indian National Congress, and its leader Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The paper's editorial accused the Prime Minister of being party to massive fraud and cover up.
In 1991, Deputy Editor N. Ravi, Ram's younger brother replaced G. Kasturi as Editor. Nirmala Lakshman, Kasturi Srinivasan's granddaughter, became Joint Editor of The Hindu and her sister, Malini Parthasarathy, Executive Editor.
In 2003, the Jayalalitha Government of the state of Tamil Nadu, of which Chennai is the capital, filed cases against the paper for "breach of privilege" of the state legislative body. The move was widely perceived as a government's assault on freedom of the press. However, The Hindu emerged unscathed from the ordeal, scoring both political and legal victories, as it instantly commanded the support of the journalistic community throughout the country.
The younger generation of The Hindu's editors have also contributed much to its commercial success. They built a modern infrastructure for news-gathering, printing and distribution. On the look of the newspaper, editor-in-chief Ram writes, "The Hindu has been through many evolutionary changes in layout and design, for instance, moving news to the front page that used to be an ad kingdom; adopting modular layout and make-up; using large photographs; introducing colour; transforming the format of the editorial page to make it a purely 'views' page; avoiding carry-over of news stories from one page to another; and introducing boxes, panels, highlights, and briefs." Major layout changes appeared (redesign by Edwin Taylor) and starting 14 April 2005 (redesign by Mario Garcia and Jan Kny). The focus of Garcia's redesign was on "giving pre-eminence to text, including (where appropriate and necessary) long text, but also by enabling photographs, other graphics, and white space to have an enhanced role on the pages; by giving the reader more legible typography, an efficient indexing or 'navigation' system, a clear hierarchy of stories, a new and sophisticated colour palette; and by offering the advertiser better value and new opportunities."
The newspaper has also established foreign bureaus in eleven locations – Islamabad, Colombo, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Beijing, Moscow, Paris, Dubai, Washington, D.C., London, and most recently Addis Ababa.

Managing-directors A close up view of the entrance to Kasturi Buildings, the head office of The Hindu
• M. Veeraraghavachariar (1878–1904)
• S. Kasturi Ranga Iyengar (1904–1923)
• K. Srinivasan (1923–1959)
• G. Narasimhan (1959–1977)
• N. Ram (1977–2011)
• K. Balaji (2011 – present) Editors
• G. Subramania Iyer (1878–1898)
• C. Karunakara Menon (1898–1905)
• Kasturi Ranga Iyengar (1905–1923)
• S. Rangaswami Iyengar (1923–1926)
• K. Srinivasan (1926–1928)
• A. Rangaswami Iyengar (1928–1934)
• K. Srinivasan (1934–1959)
• S. Parthasarathy (1959–1965)
• G. Kasturi (1965–1991)
• N. Ravi (1991–2003)
• N. Ram (2003–2012)
• Siddharth Varadarajan (2012–present)

Achievements
The Hindu has many firsts in India to its credit, which include the following
• 1940: First to introduce colour
• 1963: First to own fleet of aircraft for distribution
• 1969: First to adopt facsimile system of page transmission
• 1980: First to use computer aided photo composing
• 1986: First to use satellite for facsimile transmission
• 1994: First to adopt wholly computerised integration of text and graphics in page make-up and remote imaging
• 1995: First newspaper to go on Internet

The Hindu
Parent Company Kasturi and Sons Ltd
Category Newspapers
Sector Media & Entertainment
Tagline/ Slogan Stay ahead of times; India’s National Newspaper since 1878
USP Synonymous with Southern India especially Chennai
STP
Segment General News Segment
Target Group English speaking/reading Indian Audience
Positioning Voice of Southern India
Competition
Competitors 1. Times of India
2. Hindustan Times
3. Indian Express

The selling process
The selling process of the newspaper The Hindu in India involves various steps like:

1. Prospecting and Evaluation:

This is the stage where potential customers are found and evaluated. It is first necessary to identify that the potential customer has the willingness, ability and authority to buy the product. This would involve first generating sales leads. In the case of newspapers customers could be Financial Institutions, IT employees, students preparing for their CAT examination MBA students and other institutions like Hotels, Airlines etc. Most of the times when a company or offices are approached with subscription offer the gatekeepers are encountered who are actually the receptionists and security guards and they don't have the authority to buy the paper but pose a challenge to the final sale from happening.

2. Pre approach:

In this stage the process of approaching the client is decided. This involves deciding on the approach establishing objectives of the sales call and preparing for a presentation. We need to analyse what are the product features in which the customer will be interested and focus on those during the presentation.

This stage involves deciding whether it will be enough to do a simple cold call or to set up an appointment which is needed in case we want to set up a stall. Like in the case of setting up stalls in IT companies where a larger section of our targeted population can be met it becomes essential that we first fix up an appointment with the facilities manager asking his permission to set up the stall.

3. Approach:

This stage involves getting in initial contact with the customer by meeting him and generating interest in the product. Once the salesmen we are with the customer they would make a presentation making him aware of the characteristics of the paper, the discount and the magazines that are on offer.

While selling to Financial Institutions sales representatives focus on presenting the various Business magazines that the customer will get if he subscribes. While pitching to younger customer salesmen focuses on the monthly magazines which are more enticing to them. While making presentations to corporates the focus is on the operational efficiency and convince the Facilities Manager that the implementation will be starting in 2 week’s time from when the employees start signing up for the subscription.

4. Handling Objection:

The most common objection which is encountered during the selling is the fact that most customers who are regular readers of others newspapers are very loyal and are unwilling to change. This is the time when distinguishing features of the products need to be highlighted for example Business Standard highlights the fact that it has has various sections like the BS 200 which gives the complete analysis of the 200 companies that were traded the most on the stock exchange the previous week. This section on the paper is something unique only to Business Standard. Also 'The Compass' which is a small segment in the Business Standard Newspaper assists people in making their investment decisions as to which sector they should invest their money in was also of interest to people who were more investment focused.
And of course the magazines which are offered are another reason why most of these customers get ready to buy the subscription. Also the supplements like Brand Line, Life by Business Line, and The Smart Investor by Business Standard are highlighted to entice the consumers to purchase the subscription.

Some of the customers are worried about the implementation time this is where sales person had to tell the customers about how we will be ensuring that they get a regular supply of their business standard by interacting with their vendors and start the delivery of their newspaper to their home in 2 weeks.

5. Closing:

At this stage the customer is more or less aware of the product and has made up his mind to either go ahead with the sale or not. If the subscription are attractively priced most customers prefer to go for the plan offered and want to first get a look at the service being provided. Thus most people will either back out at the middle of the presentation, while others stick around to try and see what they are getting for their money. By the time salesman pops the final question whether the customer wants to pay by cash or cheque the customer usually has made up his mind.

Sales Management

1. Sales Planning:

It is the first step in the sales management process Sales planning guides the organization in achieving its objectives in a systematic manner leading to profitability and success.

In case of newspaper industry plans are formulated keeping in view the overall sales strategy and objectives of individual organizations. Since circulation is the main thing in the newspaper industry, all the planning is intended to increase the circulation base of newspaper .The main source of revenue for a newspaper company is the advertisements and they can charge more for advertisements only if their circulation base is higher. This circulation base is increased by eating into the competitor's circulation. The head office decides the targets for all branches in the country and this is communicated to marketing manager of branches across the country. The marketing manager of the branch then allocates targets for every sales executive in the branch. The marketing manager asks each sales executive to target a particular segment. Segment can be hotels, educational institutes, corporate offices, IT companies, students preparing for competitive examinations like CAT, XAT etc.

2. Organizing and Directing Sales efforts:

Most of the newspaper companies hire graduates who are well versed in local languages as selling newspaper require interacting with vendors and intermediate agencies. They generally do not hire MBAs or Post Graduates as they are more prone to attrition. The attrition rate is very high in this industry especially in the second rung companies.

Time Management: Time management is very important as the executives have to visit morning centers at around 5 to 5.30 a.m. in the morning to meet the vendors to ensure the timely delivery of newspapers. Morning centers are places where all the newspapers are dropped and vendors come here to collect newspapers for their locality. Most of the activities happen between 3.30 a.m to 5.30 a.m. Within this short span they have to meet the vendors and ensure they are regularly supplying the newspapers.

3. On the job training:

The sales force is briefed about the newspaper and supplements and then they are sent to the field for training. In this industry the training is mostly on the job where executives have to go and sell the subscriptions to the customers.

4. Compensation Plan:

Generally combination salary plans are followed in newspaper industry. This type of plan includes a combination of salary, commission and other type of incentive plans. As sales people get regular income in the form of monetary incentives, they are continuously motivated and it also provides sales person with the advantage of both a fixed salary and variable income. Every executive is given a minimum target to achieve and on exceeding this target they are given an incentive.

5. Evaluating Sales Force Performance:

The performance of sales force is measured in terms of the number of subscriptions generated by each sales person. At the end of the month they collate how many subscriptions have been generated by executives and on the basis of subscriptions generated salary is computed.

Distribution Process of Newspaper – The Hindu
• The newspaper sales involve distributing highly perishable products under severe time constraints.
• The printed newspapers have to be dispatched to various distributors across the region. Transportation is normally through private contract carriers within local area, public transport in case of longer distances and through couriers in other cases.
• The newspaper distributor has the rights to distribute the newspaper in his area. The revenue of the newspaper distributor is based on a commission on the sale of every newspaper. The circulation is normally through salesmen appointed and salaried by the distributors, who in turn pass it on to hawkers.
• Hawkers, vendors and book stall owners are the last link of the supply chain before newspaper reaches readers. The hawkers' remuneration is also normally based on the commission system and is generally the highest in the entire supply chain.
• Responsiveness and efficiency play an important role in newspaper distribution channel. Responsiveness includes supply chain's ability to respond to wide a range of quantity demanded (due to demand fluctuations) and meet short lead times. On the other hand efficiency is the cost of making and delivering the newspaper to the readers.

CONCLUSION
The Hindu has been playing an important role in the communication department and improvement of English language, it services to the society is wonder ful and splendid . It develops the business and employee and employer students and all knowledge fully The Hindu has to do such social oriented activities like free education and free employment benefit.
Their service is reachable to all the class people and in future to it has to the developed in the entire filed to survive and face the competitors. From this study The Hindu alter such changes definitely it can capture full share of the market.
The project has given me an idea about the operation of The Hindu newspaper and their circulation. The experience gained in the projects given me an opportunity to built up brings between the theoretical knowledge and practical function

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. http://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/media-and-entertainment/2305-the-hindu.html
2. lifeinmba.com/download.php
3. http://theglobaljournals.com/paripex/file.php?val=NTAw