Maharashtra Times

Maharashtra Times (Marathi: महाराष्ट्र टाईम्स), colloquially referred to as 'Ma Taa' (मटा) from its Marathi initialism, is a Marathi newspaper based in Mumbai, India. It is the ninth-largest-selling daily newspaper in the country. It is owned by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. or The Times Group, the largest media house in India."Maharashtra Times" has 6 editions from 6 major cities in maharashtra namely -Mumbai, Pune,Nashik,Aurangabad,Nagpur and Kolhapur.

According to the IRS 2005, Maharashtra Times enjoys the second largest readership in Mumbai. Other than The Times of India, Maharashtra Times is the only newspaper in Mumbai which has more than one million readers in the city.

Maharashtra Times' first editor was D B Karnik. In the late 1960s, he was replaced by Govindrao Talwalkar. During Talwalkar's tenure, which stretched into 1990s, the newspaper achieved its zenith primarily due to Talwalkar's editorials. Some of the leading editorials written by Talwalkar have been anthologized. After that Kumar Ketkar worked as Editor.

The paper, in its heyday, had among its contributors some of the most respected names of the day in Marathi literature such as Durga Bhagwat, Kusumagraj and P. L. Deshpande.

Bharatkumar Raut, a member of the Rajya Sabha, with the political support of the Shivsena, was the Editor of the paper from 2001 through April 2008.

For many years, 'Patra Navhe Mitra' ('Not a Newspaper but a Friend') was the tagline of the newspaper. Its editorial and letters to the editor features have been acknowledged to be among the best in Maharashtra. It also has a Marathi elocution competition which is conducted state-wide and is quite reputed.