Dipika Kapoor joins Network18 as national digital strategy, IPs head for Indian-language cluster

GURUGRAM: Digital media is moving fast. So are the people building what comes next.

Dipika Kapoor has joined Network18 as national digital strategy, IPs head for its Indian language cluster, taking on a role that puts digital products, intellectual properties and audience communities at the centre of the growth agenda. Her mandate is broad: build new products, develop innovative digital IPs and identify opportunities where content, technology and communities converge.

Kapoor arrives with a career that cuts across the machinery of digital media. Her experience spans strategy, performance marketing, reader revenue, marketing analytics, campaign management, account management and new product roll-outs. That mix is increasingly valuable in a media business where editorial ambition alone is no longer enough. Publishers must understand audiences, build products around them and turn attention into sustainable commercial value.

Her latest move also marks a return to Network18, where she spent more than seven years across marketing leadership roles. She rose from marketing manager to senior marketing manager, assistant general manager and, eventually, general manager between 2018 and 2025. The progression reflects an unusually broad exposure to the commercial and operational side of a large media organisation.

Kapoor then joined India Today as general manager, marketing in September 2025, before moving back to Network18 in August 2026 in her current role.

The career path is revealing. Kapoor has worked at the intersection of legacy media and digital-first businesses, giving her experience of two very different operating models. At Network18, she handled responsibilities spanning business development, commercial and legal documentation, vendor management, key relationships, stakeholder coordination and publisher technology.

Earlier, at LocoVida, where she served as account management head from 2014 to 2018, her remit was firmly growth-oriented. She was responsible for developing the publisher network, building partnerships, supporting product development and managing web technology and CMS projects. One of her notable achievements was developing and deploying a client acquisition and onboarding process for 180 media organisations.

That experience matters as Indian-language digital media becomes increasingly competitive. The next phase of growth is unlikely to be driven simply by adding more content. It will depend on creating differentiated products, understanding regional audiences and developing digital IPs that can travel across platforms and formats.

Kapoor’s earlier stints add another layer to that experience. At Amar Ujala Publications, she worked on marketing communications, digital launches, blogger events and hyperlocal sections. At Tradus.in, she handled email marketing, campaign management, partnerships and e-commerce operations. She began her career at Business Standard in digital advertising sales, working on accounts including General Motors and HP.

It is a career that has moved steadily from selling digital advertising to understanding digital audiences, products and platforms.

That evolution mirrors the media industry’s own transformation. The publisher of the future needs people who can move comfortably between content, technology, marketing, revenue and partnerships. Kapoor’s new role appears designed around precisely that intersection.

For Network18, the appointment comes with a clear strategic opportunity. Indian-language audiences are not simply a regional extension of the English internet. They have distinct consumption habits, cultural contexts and community dynamics. Building products and IPs specifically for those audiences could therefore become a powerful route to deeper engagement and new revenue streams.

Kapoor has said she is looking forward to building new products, creating innovative digital IPs and exploring opportunities at the intersection of content, technology and communities. The emphasis is telling. The next battle in digital media may not be for the biggest audience, but for the most engaged one.

With experience spanning publishing, e-commerce, advertising, technology, vernacular media and marketing, Kapoor enters the role with a toolkit built for that battle.