News Broadcasting
India’s news industry is eating itself, warns veteran publisher
MUMBAI: Fifty years in the media business buys you the right to speak bluntly. Aroon Purie exercised that right at Ficci Frames 2025 in Mumbai, delivering a blistering critique of India’s news industry—an ecosystem he says is simultaneously massive, unprofitable and increasingly compromised.
The numbers are staggering. India has over 140,000 registered publications, 375 twenty-four-hour news channels (with more in the pipeline), and a broadcasting industry employing 1.7 million people. Delhi alone wakes up to dozens of English and regional newspapers daily. No other country comes close to this scale. Yet 99 per cent of news channels lose money.
The problem, Purie argues, is structural. India’s news industry runs on what he calls “raddi economics”—newspapers priced so low that readers profit from selling them as scrap. Broadcasters pay cable operators carriage fees just to reach viewers, a practice that persisted even after digitisation. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s price controls strangle market forces, treating cable television like wheat or rice. “The government has made a mess of the broadcasting industry due to lack of foresight and regressive policies,” Purie said.
Worse still is the funding model. With consumers paying next to nothing, advertisers bankroll nearly the entire industry. “When journalism’s survival depends almost entirely on advertising from corporations and governments, its independence is under a constant threat of compromise,” Purie warned. The hand that gives can also take away.
Enter what Purie calls “billionaire news channels”—industrial houses launching news operations not as businesses but as tools for influence and access. They have deep pockets and no profit motive, destroying economic models for legitimate players. “Their entrance makes the public believe that every channel is a mouthpiece for a vested interest,” he said. It’s the only business, Purie noted drily, where the industry loses money yet people queue to enter it.
Digital promised salvation but delivered more of the same. Publishers chased scale and eyeballs, giving content away for free. Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter became the world’s “new editors-in-chief”, controlling distribution and monetisation whilst producing no journalism. They hoover up over 70 per cent of total media revenue—digital advertising now claims 55 per cent of all ad spending—leaving crumbs for actual newsrooms. The algorithm rewards outrage and virality, not depth or accuracy. “Newsrooms that once invested in reporters now have to invest in SEO specialists,” Purie said.
Artificial intelligence poses the next existential threat. AI can scrape, synthesise and regurgitate news without credit or revenue, summarising five articles into one paragraph. “What happens to the original news organisations—the ones who pay reporters and fight court cases—when our content is scraped?” Purie asked. It’s a question the industry is only beginning to grapple with.
Purie, whose India Today Group reaches 750 million viewers, readers and subscribers, doesn’t claim to have all the answers. But he’s clear about the solution’s shape: stop apologising for journalism’s value, innovate business models, and persuade audiences that credible news is a public good with a price. “A subscription is not just a transaction; it’s a vote for the kind of media you want to exist,” he said.
After five decades navigating disruption—from print to television to digital to AI—Purie’s diagnosis is stark. The old models are broken, the new gatekeepers ruthless, and professionally generated content under siege. Yet he remains defiant. “Disruption is not the enemy, it’s the new normal,” he said. “The real question is, do we have the courage, imagination, innovation, resilience and integrity to seize it?”
Whether India’s news industry can answer that question may determine the health of its democracy. No pressure, then.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
