Eleven digital news platforms have come together to form the DIGIPUB News India Foundation, to help ensure the creation of a healthy and robust news ecosystem for the digital age. The News Minute is a part of the new foundation, which also includes Alt News, Article 14, Boomlive, Cobrapost, HW News, Newsclick, Newslaundry, Scroll, The Quint and The Wire.
The aim is to effectively represent digital news media organisations and membership is open to digital-only ventures, as well as media commentators and independent journalists active in the digital news space.
Editor in Chief of The News Minute, Dhanya Rajendran, is the chairperson of the Foundation.- Prabir Purkayastha, Editor, Newsclick, is the Vice Chairperson and the General Secretaries are The Quint co-founder and CEO Ritu Kapur, and Newslaundry co-founder Abhinandan Sekhri.
“Despite the growth of digital-only news organisations in India, there is no single body representing the country’s digital news ecosystem. 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,” a statement from the new foundation states.
The statement adds that DIGIPUB News India Foundation has been created to address the need for an organisation to represent and accurately amplify the interests of digital-only news media.
“One of the aims of the foundation is to underline the fact that the 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, sometimes, even in the definition and practice of journalism itself,” the statement says.
One of the key defining aspects of the foundation is that it does not believe that only organisations should represent or voice the needs of the digital news ecosystem, the statement adds. “It is imperative to recognize the contribution of independent journalists in forming the bulwark of this ecosystem. Membership to the DIGIPUB News India Foundation is open to independent/freelance journalists who work in the digital news ecosystem,” it says.
The Foundation says it hopes to take the best practices from legacy media and hone these to specifically meet the needs of digital media. “There is a huge potential in the caliber of journalism and the news brands that have and can emerge from the digital space, which can create a golden age for digital-only news media. DIGIPUB News India Foundation looks forward to the support and collaboration of journalists, entrepreneurs, news professionals and news consumers, to nurture an organisation which will represent, define and protect this digital-only news ecosystem,” the statement concludes.