Why Independent News Media Fails to Appeal to the Masses

Indian journalism is in shambles.

At least that is what public opinion has increasingly become in recent years. Trust in the news being provided to us is at an all-time low. Government control over what can be published has increased, and advertisement revenue is now being weaponized to publish articles that further the advertisers’ agendas. But the state of journalism in India is not entirely so bleak; there still exist news organisations willing to bring up issues being silenced elsewhere. Organisations like The Wire, The Quint, and Newslaundry are all committed to hard-hitting, truthful journalism not tainted by third-party agendas. They do so by taking funding not from advertisers, but from the public. This undoubtedly genius model has definitely spread in recent years, but has not exactly achieved massive success in India.

The first obstruction that comes to mind is their budget. The obvious drawback to publicly funded journalism is that it is not as lucrative as earning through advertising. These news organisations are limited in their scope since they do not have the money to expand massively. These budget constraints also restrict them from running print newspapers and instead rely on the digital medium, which should be better for reach, but alienates the portion of Indian audiences who are not technologically inclined or have grown up on print and do not yet trust the digital medium as much. Additionally, many of these platforms rely on subscription models and paywalls to sustain themselves, which can further limit access for a wider audience accustomed to free news content.

AdditAnother big reason for their stagnant growth is the type of content that the organisations put out. Mainstream news organisations like The Hindu & Times of India focus on day-to-day news covering all current affairs, while the independent news organisations focus more on investigative stories and feature articles about social, political, and cultural issues. 

Of course, this does not mean that mainstream news doesn’t do such stories and vice versa, but the difference in the output exposes the different philosophies these organisations hold. Mainstream news follows the old ideals of journalism, where they aim to inform the readers about the happenings of the world they live in. Independent news, on the other hand, aims not only to inform the audience about current affairs but also to make them aware of the deeper societal and political issues behind them. This philosophy is born out of the need to combat propaganda and the alleged suppression of news by those in power. In fact, The Wire and The Quint were both founded by prominent people in the mainstream news world who grew disillusioned with the practices prevalent there. 

Neither philosophy is wrong per se, yet the mainstream philosophy produces easier-to-read articles. The average person only reads the news to inform themselves about the world, which mainstream news does perfectly. The articles from the independent organizations require more time and comprehension to fully engage with, which not a lot of people are willing to give since the often fast-paced life of Indian society today makes it hard for the audience to make time for it, especially if they think they could get the same information just from a headline or a shorter article. This also causes a divide in the audiences that both types of organisations cater to. Another factor in this is the rise in prominence of social media for audience growth. The social media algorithm(which most independent news media rely on) prefers and promotes short-form content. So smaller articles and catchier headlines take prominence over what might be better researched but not as flashy.

Mainstream news is for casual readers. They’ll read the news and move on with their day. Independent news caters to people more engaged with current events. They invest their time in reading the articles to completely understand the current world situation. To simplify this, mainstream news focuses on “what” is happening in the world while independent news focuses on “why” it’s happening. This philosophy of independent news media works exceptionally well for audience retention, but it is not optimal for audience growth.

Independent news outlets have tried various ways to address this issue. The Wire now provides news in three languages aside from English, aiming at more regional audiences. The Quint, through WebQoof, provides easily shareable fact-checks of fake news. The best bet so far has been to create short-form video content, which condenses topics into a brief, interesting format and arouses interest in reading the entire article(or watching the whole video), something NewsLaundry has excelled at. This approach is also beneficial in terms of algorithmically optimising the channels’ content for social media. These solutions have helped to a certain extent, but this problem is a hard one to fix, as the organisations aren’t really doing anything wrong.

This problem hasn’t arisen from the lack of anything particular in independent news media, but rather from a clash between what these organisations provide and what a large portion of Indian audiences expect from the news. 

In a country so religiously and politically dense, news is always controversial. Independent news sites are filled with opinion pieces, feature articles, and deep dives into social and political issues that only add fuel to the fire. People expect news to inform, not provoke, but provoke it does. You only need a cursory glance at the comment section of one of their articles or videos to see hordes of seething individuals typing out pure vitriol about what they see as biased or untruthful. Average audiences aren’t willing to engage with that to keep themselves informed; mainstream news does it way less controversially.

Independent news already faces myriad challenges. Funding issues, government censorship, and corporate pressure are just the tip of the iceberg. Yet, they need to persevere to uphold the standards of journalism that are rapidly falling. While mainstream news chases TRP and ad revenue, independent news media commits to fair reporting. Their battle for righteous journalism is not only fought on their side, but also ours. It is up to us to engage with their content, support them monetarily if possible, and spread the word about them. Yes, they have their issues, but the model they perpetuate is key to having a truly informed demographic, and by extension, a true democracy.