TNM turns 12 and here is how we got this far | South Central Episode 63

The News Minute turns 12 on February 21, and to commemorate, in this week’s South Central, hosts Dhanya Rajendran and Pooja Prasanna bring together the old and new team of TNM. The group goes over how TNM started– a one-room venture with an intern and one reporter, and traces how it grew into a steadfast newsroom with several journalists, focusing on caste, gender, power, and culture.

Published on:

21 Feb 2026, 9:42 am

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Dhanya starts the session by introducing the teammates– joining from the Bengaluru studio are Executive Editor Sudipto Mondal and Associate Editor Nandini Chandrashekar. Joining in from various places are Anisha Sheth, TNM’s first ever employee and current chief of Karnataka bureau, Priyanka Thirumurthy, who earlier headed TNM’s Tamil Nadu bureau, Sanyukta Dharmadhikari who previously headed breaking news, Haritha John, TNM’s Kerala bureau chief, Charan Teja who was a reporter from Telangana & AP, Balakrishna, TNM’s head of features, Azeefa Fathima, current head of breaking news, Paul Ommen who used to report from AP, Sukanya Shaji who now oversees gender stories, and Yana, who takes care of marketing and communications.

Dhanya starts with Anisha, asking her how the initial days of TNM were. “The TNM we started out with was really different though the core values remain the same. Now there are so many more colleagues to share and learn from,” Anisha says.

Dhanya recalls how the beginning was with a one-room space, which later was extended as the organisation grew. “There was an intern who used to aggregate from all other major newspapers,” Dhanya says.Sudipto adds how he used to come and peep around, since he was working just down the road at the Hindustan Times, before joining TNM.

Sanyukta goes through how she came in at a time when breaking news was beginning to get streamlined into a separate desk. “We focused initially on news stories that affect not just the south but nation-wide. We also reported on the courts, and any other news that impacted the country. Holding power accountable, gender, crime, and other such areas were focused on, with a special thrust on the south of India. We slowly became a well-oiled machine in time,” she says.

Azeefa speaks about how, now, the breaking news ecosystem has changed. “The confusion over what news to focus on led to the focus on the structure of the news. Our thrust slowly became on how we contextualise news stories. We now push deep dives, explainers, and video stories,” she says. Nandini adds how TNM does not focus on being the first to report, which minimises the chance for errors, both factual and other.

Priyanka speaks about the focus on gender stories and elaborates on the coverage she did on the murder of a minor girl named Hasini in Tamil Nadu. “We were the first to get one-on-one interviews with the child’s family, and question the police on why bailable offences were put on the accused. Our reportage is pretty much unmatched. The same happened with the Thoothukudi firings,” she says.

Paul speaks about his transition from TV to TNM. “Here, the footprint remains of what you have done. It is even more difficult in digital because you cannot publish something wrong,” he says. He also speaks about an investigation on an IAS officer, which landed him and TNM in legal cases as retaliation.

The conversation then goes into how TNM focuses on the power centres that inflict violence and how they are investigated through the lens of caste power, gender power, and social power. Sudipto, Charan and Bala go over the coverage of topics including the death of Dalit scholar Rohit Vehmula, and how decisions were taken about the tone and focus of those stories.

Haritha John and Sukanya speak about gender and how that has always been a key focus of TNM. They speak about how the gender lens is applied to all stories, and not just to stories involving women as such.

The group then delves into covering the south of India and how TNM makes effort to ensure that the south is not flattened into caricatures, and that each state is reported in context to its unique cultural and historic positioning.

Tune in to this conversation that reminisces how TNM came to be and what the team hopes for the future.

Once a month, we will invite one TNM subscriber to the show. Write to us on what you would like to speak about to southcentral@thenewsminute.com

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References

Sensational stories, rare follow ups: Media coverage of child sexual abuse needs change

Tracing Dhasvanth: One man, two murders, and a city in search of answers

I will fight: Father of Hasini, girl raped and killed in Chennai, speaks out

Exclusive: Top Telangana bureaucrat’s daughter’s wedding gala sponsored by mystery company?

An Ambedkar statue and alleged social boycott: How one AP village is divided by caste conflict

Andhra caste violence: No relief after 8 months, Garagaparru Dalits protest

Lambasingi: A paradise in Andhra Pradesh