Abhinandan Sekhri on Keeping News Free: Entrepreneurship, Subscriptions & the Future of Indian Journalism

Abhinandan Sekhri has worn many hats across Indian media—reporter, producer, documentary filmmaker, and now co-founder of Newslaundry, an ad-free, subscriber-funded news platform. In this conversation, he unpacks the temperament it takes to build anything in media, why Newslaundry chose subscriptions long before it was fashionable, what AI can (and can’t) do to journalism, and how the news business must reinvent itself to escape today’s stress-fuelled doom-scroll.

“Entrepreneur is a personality type”—and why that matters

For Abhinandan, entrepreneurship isn’t a credential—it’s a disposition. Some people simply prefer to work for themselves, whether they’re chefs, coders or journalists. He felt that pull early: fresh out of college and barely 21, he joined NewsTrack (then part of the India Today group), but knew by year’s end he wanted to build on his own.

He and longtime collaborator Prashant started a production house in the late ’90s—just as India’s cable TV universe exploded from a handful of channels to hundreds. The duo made non-fiction and lifestyle shows, documentaries, and ads. But the “news bug” never really left.

“News is an addiction. Even when we weren’t producing it, we were consuming it—and obsessing over how it was being made.”

Newslaundry began as a passion project powered by spare studio time, lights, cameras and edit bays from their production work. It didn’t take long before the side project became its own company.

A core lesson Abhinandan stresses—rarely highlighted at college founder festivals—is emotional fit. The daily volatility of building can crush even brilliant people who haven’t been “stress-tested.” Co-founders help distribute both load and doubt.

“Capital, contacts, ideas—they matter. But the most important question is: are you emotionally equipped for this? Co-founders with shared values are a massive source of resilience.”

Betting on readers, not advertisers

When Newslaundry launched in 2012, it took a contrarian stance: no ads; only subscriptions. That wasn’t a spreadsheet decision as much as a values-driven one. Abhinandan and co-founder Madhu Trehan (a pioneering news leader who founded India Today, NewsTrack, and TV Today) had lived inside the machine and saw what advertising did to incentives, panel line-ups and editorial choices.

They were early to a trend the industry is only now acknowledging: digital ad rates fell off a cliff, and ad-dependent newsrooms drifted toward click-bait economics. Newslaundry’s instinct—fund reporting through its audience—has since been vindicated.

The early years were scrappy. Built on WordPress with a rickety payment flow, the site suffered hilariously high gateway failure rates. But the conviction held: if you want independence, let your readers be your shareholders.

Journalism vs. commentary (and where AI fits)

Abhinandan draws a clean line many gloss over: “news” is an umbrella; journalism is the foundation that holds it up. A news product can (and should) include commentary, satire, explainers and data viz—but without on-ground, first-hand reporting, it’s not journalism.

“If a ‘news’ site has no reporters you can name, it’s not news. It’s commentary or a blog.”

Where does AI enter? He’s bullish on AI as a tool—for copy-checks, summarizing long documents, and surfacing patterns—but skeptical it can replace the core of reporting as we understand it today. Context, motive and judgment are human calls: deciding which balance sheets matter, why a testimony’s timeline doesn’t add up, or how disparate threads connect.

He is, however, candid about what AI will disrupt in newsrooms: desk rewrites, parts of design and editing. There’s also a broader, societal worry—AI’s concentration among a few data-rich firms will likely shrink jobs and pool wealth even further unless we rethink policy and the social contract.

Formats are horses for courses

Remember the old “online videos must be 3–5 minutes” rule? Abhinandan laughs. For an ad-free subscription business, the metric isn’t views—it’s depth and conversion. Sometimes a 25-minute interview converts more subscribers than a 4-minute clip that racks up views. It depends on the audience, the story, and the job the content is doing.

• Podcasts: perfect for immersive, long-form consumption while commuting, lifting, cooking.

• Video: great for explainers, interviews, visual stories—but length should serve the narrative, not a platform myth.

• Text: indispensable for precision and reference, though screen fatigue is real.

The takeaway: build in all three formats, watch your own data, and optimize per use-case—not one-size-fits-all dogma.

The toxicity tax—and why tuning out may force change

If you’ve cut back on news because it feels polarizing, performative or joylessly negative—you’re not alone. Abhinandan cites global studies (e.g., Reuters/Oxford) showing young audiences are opting out because news feels toxic. He actually sees a silver lining: irrelevance can be the pressure that forces reinvention.

The “debate” format in India, he argues, has slid into reality TV—more Bigg Boss than broadcast journalism. That market will always exist. The question is how serious news differentiates itself and stays relevant without mirroring the circus.

What’s next: collaboration, many revenue streams, and policy that matters

Newslaundry’s path forward leans into alliances. It already runs a joint subscription with The News Minute, syncing operations closely without merging entities. Expect more such collaborations—especially across languages—to create a robust, decentralized ecosystem of smaller newsrooms (think turnovers in the ₹1–30 crore range) that together cover the country more honestly than a few behemoths.

On revenue, subscriptions remain the spine—but survival demands two or three additional streams tailored to each newsroom’s strengths. Technology choices—and matching stories to the right format—will be decisive.

Perhaps most overlooked, Abhinandan says, is government policy. News is regulated almost as tightly as mining, energy, spectrum and water. Policy can nurture a free, competitive press—or choke it. We need more candid, public conversations about how regulation shapes the health of news.

Big takeaways

• Entrepreneurship = temperament. Know your emotional fit; choose co-founders who share your values.

• Reader revenue protects independence. Ads and journalism pull in different directions online.

• Journalism is reporting. Commentary is valuable—but it can’t substitute for on-ground work.

• AI is a force multiplier, not a reporter. Use it to accelerate; don’t outsource judgment.

• Formats should serve the story. Let your own conversion and engagement data guide length and medium.

• Tuning out is real—and instructive. If audiences disengage, news must reinvent itself.

• Collaboration beats consolidation. The future likely belongs to many smaller, mission-aligned newsrooms.

• Policy will shape the industry. A free press needs more than subscriptions; it needs sensible rules.

  
  

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