Times Of India's animosity towards Flipkart

Just sample these news items in last 3 months -  all from Times of India:

21st July, 2012 : Flipkart raises minimum order value for free delivery

....signalling the e-tailer's intent to end the price competitiveness it offered, especially in the books segment.

16th July, 2012 : Flipkart needs $150 million from investors

....Flipkart would be running out of money unless big investors step in the next nine months.

7th May, 2012: Flipkart faces heat of rivals’ discounts

..... Flipkart, the big daddy of the online books trade, is feeling the heat of competition. 

Of late, TOI as been very very offensive towards Flipkart. Its only aim seems to bring Flipkart down anyhow - by creating negative sentiments about it in every possible way. TOI has also been totally shameless in promoting its own shopping service indiatimes in the garb of publishing news. Let us just look at today's news article more carefully.

1. The topic : Flipkart raises minimum order value for free delivery

Almost a month ago Makemytrip,Cleartrip and Yatra  - almost acting in a cartel like fashion - started charging Rs. 100/- as the processing/convenience fee for all the payments. TOI kept mum. I really wonder why? Far more people use these sites as compared to Flipkart. If TOI was so keen on publishing News - here it was. So it's obvious as hell that TOI  is harboring a grudge against Flipkart which manifests itself in such artificially created news.

2. The contents : 

Now look at the above picture which TOI published in today's News Article. 

It's considered the golden rule of journalism to disclose any stakes the publisher has in the companies being written about. Even SEBI has mandated it. But TOI is totally shameless and irresponsible in ignoring this dictum. It's clearly promoting its own indiatimes in the guise of News. And even if we keep this rule aside - indiatimes has been around at least 5-6 years before Flipkart. Still everyone loves Flipkart because of their service. And that's the reason why they are way ahead of any other competitor. No matter how cheap others sell - unless they can bring up the level of customer care on par with Flipkart - they will lick the dust.

3. For some reason - this whole thing reminds me of TOI's  aggression towards commonwealth games simply because it was not given the official newspaper status(and the money involved) for the same. I just wonder whether Chetan Bhagat's article would have seen the light of the day if TOI had been given the contract.

In the end I can only quote Tony Burman :

Every news organization has only its credibility and reputation to rely on. 

-- Tony Burman, ex-editor-in-chief of CBC News, The Globe and Mail, October 2001

And clearly TOI is losing its credibility with every passing day.