Alt News, Article 14, Boomlive, Cobrapost, HW News, Newsclick, Newslaundry, Scroll, News Minute, Quint, and Wire are among the founding member organisations of DIGIPUB.
11 digital news organisations have come together to help create a healthy news ecosystem for the digital age. The DIGIPUB News India Foundation was launched on Tuesday.
“DIGIPUB News India Foundation has been created to represent, amplify and evolve best practices to build a robust digital news ecology that is truly world-class, independent and upholds the highest standards of journalism,” the association said in a press release while announcing the launch.
The release said a key aim of the foundation was to “underline the fact that pursuits and interests of legacy media may not always be the same as that of digital media – especially in regards to regulation, business models, technology and structures”.
Alt News, Article 14, Boomlive, Cobrapost, HW News, Newsclick, Newslaundry, Scroll, News Minute, Quint, and Wire are among the founding member organisations of DIGIPUB. The membership of DIGIPUB is limited to digital news outlets and journalists currently operating in India.
However, in a unique provision, DIGIPUB will also be open to independent and freelance journalists working in the digital media. The press release mentioned: “The Foundation does not believe that only organisations should represent or voice the needs of the digital news ecosystem. It is imperative to recognize the contribution of independent journalists in forming the bulwark of this ecosystem.”
Dhanya Rajendran of the News Minute is the association’s first chairperson; Prabir Purkayastha of Newsclick is the vice-chairperson, and Ritu Kapur of the Quint and Abhinandan Sekhri of Newslaundry are general secretaries.
Rajendran, while stressing the need of such association, said: “As digital news media organisations gain greater prominence in our lives for providing credible information and safeguarding democracy, this concerted effort by digital-first news outlets will enable us to keep the ecosystem healthy. This will help us come together to solve the massive challenges faced by the industry today.”
Ritu Kapur, when asked what the need for this foundation was, said: “Independent digital-only publishers have been at the forefront of strong, fearless journalism, and have often been under threat. It was important to have a body that represented their voice, that would protect the interests and needs of independent newsrooms and journalists. The Quint is delighted to be a founding member of DIGIPUB News India Foundation.”
The News Broadcasting Association and the Press Council of India are self-regulators of television news channels and newspapers in India respectively. However, there was no such body representing digital-only media organisations, and DIGIPUB intends to fill that vacuum.
There exist two other bodies that claim to represent India’s digital media. Digital News Publishers Association or DNPA is one of them, which includes the Times Group, India Today group, Hindustan Times, NDTV. The second is the Indian Digital Media Association, or IDMA, which has Republic TV, India News, Odisha TV, News X, Sunday Guardian, OpIndia and Goa Chronicle as members.
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