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Digital Journalism Start-Ups in India (P Ilbu Sh Tniojde Llyy Iw Tthh I

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Digital Journalism Start-Ups in India (P Ilbu Sh Tniojde Llyy Iw Tthh I REUTERS INSTITUTE for the STUDY of SELECTED RISJ PUBLICCATIONSATIONSS REPORT JOURNALISM Abdalla Hassan Raymond Kuhn and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (eds) Media, Reevvolution, and Politics in Egyyppt: The Story of an Po lacitil Journalism in Transition: Western Europe in a Uprising Comparative Perspective (published jointllyy iw tthh I.B.Tau s)ri (published tnioj llyy htiw I.B.Tau s)ri Robert G. Picard (ed.) Nigel Bowles, James T. Hamilton, David A. L. Levvyy )sde( The Euro Crisis in the Media: Journalistic Coverage of Transparenccyy in Politics and the Media: Accountability and Economic Crisis and European Institutions Open Government (published jointllyy iw tthh I.B.Tauris) (published tnioj llyy htiw I.B.Tau s)ri Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (ed.) Julian Pettl ye (e ).d Loc Jla naour lism: The Decli ofne News pepa rs and the Media and Public Shaming: Drawing the Boundaries of Rise of Digital Media Di usolcs re Digital Journalism Start-Ups in India (published jointllyy iw tthh I.B.Tau s)ri (publ(publ si heed joi tn llyy tiw h II.. T.B aur )si Wendy N. Wy de(tta .) La ar Fi le dden The Ethics of Journalism: Individual, stIn itutional and Regulating ffoor Trust in Journalism: Standards Regulation Cu nIlarutl fflluences in the Age of Blended Media (published jointllyy iw tthh I.B.Tau s)ri Arijit Sen and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen David A. L eL. vvyy and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (eds) The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Demo arc ccyy May 2016 CHALLENGES Robert G. Picard and Hannah Storm Nick Fras re The Kidnapping of Journalists: Reporting from High- Whhy Documentaries Matter Ri ks Conffllict Zones (published jointllyy iw tthh I.B.Tau s)ri Nicola Bruno and Rasmus Kleis Ni nesle Surv lavi is Su J:ssecc ournalistic Online St tra -ups Lucy Küng in Western Europe Innovators in Digital News (published jointllyy iw tthh I.B.Tau s)ri John Lloyd John Lloyd and Laura Toogood Scandal! News International and the Righ st of Journalism Journalism and PR: News Media and Public Relations ni the Digital Age Ri drahc Sambrook (published jointllyy iw tthh I.B.Tau s)ri Are Foreign Correspondents Redundant? The Changing Face of retnI na it onal News John Lloyd and Cristina Marconi Reporting the EU: News, Media and the European stIn itutions Stephen Whittle and Glenda Cooper (published jointllyy iw tthh I.B.Tau s)ri Pr avi ccyy, PrP obity, and Public Interest James Painter Stephen Coleman, Scott Anthony, and David E Morrison Climate Change in the Media: Reporting Ri ks Public Trust in the News: A Constructivist Study of the Social and Uncertainty Life of the News (published jointllyy iw tthh I.B.Tau s)ri Nik Gowing Suzanne Franks ‘Skkyyffuul of L sei ’ and Black Swans: The New T anyr ny Women and Journalism Shiof fftting Inforo mation Power in Crises (published jointllyy iw tthh I.B.Tau s)ri An erd w CCu harr Naomi Sakr Wh s’ta Happening to Our News: An Investigation into the Transffoormations in Eggyyptian Journalism Likely Impa tc of the Digital Rev utol ion on t onomEche sci of (publ(publ si hed joi tn llyy iw tthh II.. T.B aur )si News Publishing in the UK ISBN 978-1-907384-20-2 A nomadic shepherd stands with a sheep while listening to music from his mobile phone along a road in Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi February 26, 2012. 9 781907 384202 REUTERS/Parivartan Sharma Contents About the Authors 2 Acknowledgements 2 Executive Summary 3 1. Introduction 5 The Indian Digital Media Market 7 Lessons Learned from Start-Ups Elsewhere 10 2. For-Profit Content-Based Start-Ups 13 The Quint 13 Scroll 19 3. For-Profit Aggregation-Based Start-Ups 23 Inshorts 23 DailyHunt 26 4. Non-Profit Start-Ups 31 The Wire 31 Khabar Lahariya 34 5. Conclusion 39 Appendix: Some Other Digital Journalism Start-Ups in India 43 List of Interviewees 46 References 47 1 About the Authors Arijit Sen is a former Gerda Henkel Fellow at the Reuters Institute at Oxford University and an alumnus of the School of Law in SOAS, London, and Calcutta University. A three-time recipient of India’s Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, and formerly a journalist with NDTV and Senior Special Correspondent for CNN-IBN, he now works for Amnesty International. Rasmus Kleis Nielsen is Director of Research at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Press/Politics. His work focuses on changes in the news media, political communication, and the role of digital technologies in both. He has done extensive research on journalism, political campaigns, and various forms of activism, and a significant amount of comparative work in Western Europe and beyond. His work has been covered by news media all over the world and he frequently speaks at both academic and industry/professional conferences. Acknowledgements We would like to thank the 20 people who agreed to be interviewed for this report, both people at the start-ups featured and those elsewhere we spoke to for background and context. Without their insights and willingness to share their thoughts, this report would not have been possible. Furthermore, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen would like to thank all the individuals and news organisations who opened their doors, shared data, and took time to speak on background in Delhi in December 2015, including Reuters Institute Journalism Fellowship Alumni Supriya Sharma, Sumit Pande, and Parul Agrawal – just a few of the many deeply impressive Indian journalists we have hosted at the institute over the years. We are also grateful for input and support from the team at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism including Alex Reid and Hannah Marsh. David Levy from the Reuters Institute and Sumandro Chattopadhaya from the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore deserve special mention as they offered constructive comments on the entire manuscript. 2 Executive Summary In this report, we analyse six examples of digital journalism start-ups developing new editorial priorities, distribution strategies, and funding models for an increasingly digital Indian media environment. After years of slow growth, internet use and digital advertising has grown very rapidly in India in recent years, powered especially by the spread of mobile internet use, and double-digit growth in both the number of users and which in advertising is expected to continue. India now has the second- largest number of internet users in the world and rapid growth in internet use and digital advertising is seen by many as the biggest market opportunity outside China since the internet took off in the United States in the 1990s. The start-ups we examine here are examples of how Indian journalists, technologists, and entrepreneurs are working to develop different content- based (the Quint, Scroll), aggregation-based (InShorts, DailyHunt), or non- profit (The Wire, Khabar Laharirya) models for doing journalism fit for a digital India. Based on interviews with people involved in these starts-ups, and with others working in and around digital journalism in India, as well as material from news coverage, academic research, and industry publications, we show the following: • The rapid growth in internet use and digital advertising has been accompanied by a large number of new start-ups including both for- profit content-based start-ups, aggregation-based start-ups, and non- profit start-ups. There are more new and interesting experiments in Indian journalism than in most other countries in the world. • Most of these start-ups recognise that internet use in India is overwhelmingly and increasingly mobile internet use, and as a consequence prioritise mobile-first approaches, based on mobile- optimised websites and mobile apps more than websites for desktop internet users. While many are currently primarily serving English- speaking Indians, most are keen to move into Hindi and local language content to reach a wider audience as more and more Indians come online. • In terms of distribution, most of these start-ups recognise they are unlikely to be destination sites or apps for large numbers of users at this stage and have prioritised social media distribution to build reach and engagement. (Content-based start-ups and non-profits alike use social media to promote and distribute their content; aggregation- based start-ups have focused on using social media to market their apps.) 3 • Some of these start-ups have grown very quickly in terms of reach, engagement, and numbers of users, but they increasingly face head-to- head competition with both (a) the digital operations of legacy media when it comes to news content and (b) large international technology companies including search engines and social media, especially for attention and advertising. • Sustainable business models take time to build and it is too soon to judge the prospects of the start-ups examined here, but it is clear that the combination of low advertising rates, limited willingness to pay for news, and the dominance of legacy media and international technology companies when it comes to digital advertising means start-ups in India face a challenging environment, even as they benefit from rapid growth in the number of users and in overall advertising spend. The start-ups we look at here – and others like them – are not exempt from the wider challenges facing journalism in India, including business pressures, occasionally weak professional ethics, outside pressures from politicians and others, and issues around owners’ and funders’ potential conflicts of interest. But they are poised to seize the opportunities represented by the rapid growth of internet use and digital advertising in India, they are often innovative and novel in terms of the journalism they do, how they distribute it, and how they try to fund it.
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