When a real estate conglomerate acquired one of India's oldest newspapers in 2019, the editorial staff celebrated. New resources, better salaries, digital investment — the promises were many. Three years later, most of those journalists have left, many in protest.
The story of how corporate consolidation has transformed Indian media is not a new one, but its acceleration in the post-pandemic years has reached a critical inflection point. Today, the top five media groups own over 70% of the country's newspaper circulation and a significant majority of news channel viewership.
This investigation draws on exclusive interviews with 47 working and former journalists, internal documents, and financial disclosures to map the invisible lines between ownership interests and editorial decisions.