In the April issue of Manifest, Ritu Kapur, co-founder and MD of Quint Digital - the parent company of The Quint, sheds light on the challenges of running an independent digital news outlet amid rising authoritarianism and the global crackdown on free press.

Reflecting on her transition from broadcast to digital news media in 2014, Kapur, who was also one of the founding members of Network18, said, “The past decade has been a rollercoaster of keeping pace with technology, innovation, and audience behaviour. It’s both exciting and frightening.” 

Highlighting the challenges and opportunities in the digital journalism space, she stated, “One major concern is news avoidance - people perceive news as negative and choose to disengage. But for a democracy, information is critical to empower voters, to choose their governments, to understand their rights, and to understand what’s happening in the counter,” adding, “The question is: How do we present news in a way that sustains engagement without diluting substance?”  

Kapur also emphasised the role of media ownership in maintaining editorial integrity. “Look at most of the broadcast media in the country - the ownership is by corporates. I can’t think of any independent broadcast media company today. NDTV was the last bastion, but that’s fallen as well. Now, if I am a large corporate, obviously my large corporate needs take priority over the news, or the editorial integrity of what I’m doing with my news, and therefore I am that much closer to bending to the needs of the powers that be. And that then reflects in what I’m putting out as my editorial.”

“So, the nature of media ownership in this country has a lot to do with why the quality of broadcast news, in terms of editorial ethics and integrity, has been compromised,” she rued.

Kapur further added, "Then, of course, there is what broadcast news has done to itself. It’s often impossible to watch those slanging matches. A lot of large legacy media has become propaganda vehicles and the mouthpiece of the powers that be. They have diminished their value. The whole idea of an anchor-driven news bulletin has waned. Broadcast TV has stopped putting out news reports, they just have people talking. When was the last time a big story was broken by broadcast media? The priority is not on what the reporter can bring, but on who one can line up as guests for prime time."

To read the full conversation, get your copy here!