News Broadcasting
Mumbai Press club awards Ninan , NDTV editor Ravish Kumar
NEW DELHI: Veteran business journalist T N Ninan has been honoured with the Red Ink Life Time Achievement Award of the Mumbai Press Club. The ‘Red Ink Journalist of the Year’ Award was given to NDTV India’s senior executive editor Ravish Kumar for his consistent and good reporting on politics and issues that concern the common man.
The awards presented by Maharashtra governor C Vidyasagar Rao and Union Energy minister Piyush Goyal recognizes Ninan’s extensive contribution to business journalism through editorial leadership which he provided to a host of publications. Vinod Mehta, Kuldeep Nayar, N Ram, Mrinal Pande and Prannoy Roy were in the past honoured with the Life Time Achievement Award.
‘The Wire’, a news and public affairs website founded by Siddharth Varadarajan and Siddharth Bhatia, was adjudged the ‘Red Ink Start-up of the Year’.
The Mumbai Press Club also honoured posthumously Jagendra Singh of Shahjahanpur, UP with the ‘RedInk Veer Patrakar Puraskar. Jagendra Singh was allegedly killed for his exposes on illegal sand mining and other misdemeanours of a local politician in June 2015.
The Red Ink Awards for Excellence in journalism were given away in 10 categories for meritorious work in TV, print and digital formats. The categories were politics, crime, health and wellness, business, environment, human rights, photography, science and innovation, entertainment and lifestyle and sports.
The theme of the Red Ink Awards 2016 was ‘To Rise Above It All’ . A panel discussion held on the occasion reflected upon many challenges being faced by journalism in a period of increasing violence, vested interests and hashtag writings. The panel moderated by Shobha De comprised veteran journalist Meenaz Merchant, co-founder of Wire news portal, Siddharth Varadarajan, Moneylife Foundation’s Sucheta Dalal and NDTV editor Ravish Kumar.
News Broadcasting
Network18 Q4 revenue grows 9.7 per cent, EBITDA at Rs 30 crore
PAT improves to Rs 306.6 crore, margins steady amid cost pressures.
MUMBAI: Not all news is breaking, some of it is quietly improving. Network18 Media & Investments Limited appears to be doing just that, tightening losses and stabilising margins even as costs continue to weigh on the business. For FY26, the company reported revenue from operations of Rs 1,955.1 crore, up from Rs 1,896.2 crore in FY25, signalling modest top-line growth in a challenging media environment. Total income stood at Rs 1,978.2 crore, compared to Rs 1,913 crore a year earlier.
Profit after tax came in at Rs 306.6 crore for the year, a sharp turnaround from Rs 3,225.4 crore in FY25, largely reflecting the absence of large exceptional items that had inflated the previous year’s numbers. On a more comparable basis, the company’s operating performance showed signs of gradual stabilisation.
However, the quarterly picture remained under pressure. For the March quarter, Network18 reported a loss of Rs 53.1 crore, narrower than the Rs 98.1 crore loss in the same period last year, but still indicative of ongoing cost challenges.
Expenses continued to track high. Total expenses for FY26 stood at Rs 2,235.7 crore, up from Rs 2,197.8 crore in FY25. Key cost heads included operational expenses of Rs 765.9 crore, employee benefits of Rs 475.9 crore, and marketing, distribution and promotional spends of Rs 427.1 crore, underlining the continued investment required to sustain reach and engagement.
At an operating level, margins remained under strain. Operating margin stood at 2.33 per cent for FY26, marginally higher than 1.77 per cent in FY25, while net profit margin remained negative at -13.02 per cent, though improved from -14.89 per cent.
On the balance sheet, total assets rose to Rs 8,957.6 crore as of 31 March 2026, from Rs 8,317.5 crore a year earlier. Equity strengthened to Rs 4,958.7 crore, while borrowings increased to Rs 3,112.8 crore, reflecting a higher reliance on debt to support operations.
Cash flows told a mixed story. While financing activities generated Rs 83.9 crore, operating cash flow remained negative at Rs -24 crore, highlighting ongoing pressure on core cash generation. Cash and cash equivalents, however, improved to Rs 33.9 crore from Rs 1.8 crore.
The numbers point to a company in transition growing revenues, trimming losses, but still grappling with structural cost pressures. In a sector where scale often comes at a price, Network18 seems to be inching towards balance, one quarter at a time.
