News Broadcasting
Times goes tabloid; drops broadsheet edition
MUMBAI: You are never too old to change. That could be the latest anthem of 216 year old Times.
The Times will become a tabloid-only publication starting on Monday, 1 November. The decision comes about 11 months after the British national daily, owned by a unit of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, launched a tabloid version for commuters to help it reverse a downturn in circulation.
Although the senior bosses at The Times remained tight-lipped, the news that Times has abandoned the broadsheet edition leaked out after a major marketing campaign to promote the changes had been hastily arranged for the weekend, alongside ads being booked in the trade press, say media reports.
UK newspapers that have switched to the smaller format have bucked the trend of declining newspaper circulation.
Coincidentally, the move comes six months after The Independent ended its own dual format experiment and discarded the broadsheet edition of the paper in favour of a tabloid in September 2003.
According to the reports, recent sales figures for the newspaper – of which only 30 per cent are broadsheets – has seen a modest increase in regions outside the London and South East, such as Wales and Ireland. The news will come as little surprise to the industry, the speed in which the speculation has mounted this week has been swift and secretive.
Sales of the title have increased by 4.5 per cent year on year to 661,000 copies on a Monday to Saturday.
Eyes will now be on The Times’ closest rival in the broadsheet market, The Daily Telegraph. The paper has been silent over any possible move to a compact format since the Barclay Brothers wrestled control of the UK’s best selling broadsheet title in the summer from the Hollinger International empire. The Guardian is planning to convert to a midsize Berliner format.
Over the past decade, The Times more than doubled its circulation after it started a price war in a bid to overtake the Telegraph. Murdoch also owns tabloid heavyweight the Sun, Britain’s top-selling newspaper. The Times was first published in 1785 as The Daily Universal Register before taking its current name in 1788.
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.
