We’ve seen an important, inspiring message from Rahul Joshi, Managing Director and Group Editor-in-Chief, Network18, to all employees. It is an insightful, forward-looking message that will also inform and inspire professionals across the spectrum, even outside Network18.
Hence we are pleased to bring it as part of our LeaderBrief series. Here it is, complete and unabridged:
I had written last year about the fundamental shifts taking place in the news business and the need for us to take the road less travelled.
Despite a very tough year for advertising-led media companies—where most news organisations have shrunk, lost viewership and dropped revenue share—your company has beaten the odds and grown.
A tough year — and beating the odds with relevance
But more importantly, we have gained relevance share by focusing less on the obvious, the routine, the mainstream and the traditional. We’ve grown with a relentless focus on content and its creator ecosystem no matter where they come from.
This year, we launched Creator18 to widen our reach amongst content creators of all hues. The idea is simple—offer them a platform to showcase their creative, cutting-edge, relatable content. In turn, reach out to their audiences. We grow their market share, they our relevance and audience share, and both our revenue share.
You’ll see much more action in the coming months as we bring to our readers, viewers and clients more engaging content across a wide range of platforms.
Strengthening the power brands: CNBC-TV18, Moneycontrol and new growth engines
With CNBC-TV18 and Moneycontrol, we’re laying emphasis not on click-baity content but access to high-quality tools, research and insights. CNBC-TV18 Prime, our second global business channel with an India lens, and Access, our gateway to CNBC-TV18 experiences, will take the CNBC-TV18 brand to greater heights and will open sources of revenue that never existed before.
Moneycontrol’s lending platform has achieved scale and is now on its path to being a standalone vertical to be reckoned with. After MC Pro, which notched up over a million subscribers, the launch of SuperPro—for the discerning investor and trader—has resulted in the addition of a significant number of high-value subscribers. This, in turn, has driven up our average revenue per subscriber. You’ll see lots more action from Moneycontrol and CNBC-TV18 as they drive the group forward—with non-news content, tools and other experiments at their core.
Our regional cluster is growing, across languages, and our recent thrust to reach out to advertisers in every nook and corner of the country makes our sales force the most powerful in the country. Our digital outreach is giving us the ability to tap into advertising revenue from smaller clients in the far corners of India.
As traditional advertising is seeing contraction—very obvious in the way we’re seeing consolidation in the ad industry—our business model keeps us derisked on many counts. Our subscriber base is growing the fastest, our transactions business is gaining scale, our new business ideas such as Creator18 keep us relevant, and the events, IPs and campaigns business helps in preserving—and growing—the traditional revenue pie.
The future of news: Gen Z, digital-first thinking and real intelligence
That brings me to our old, traditional business of news. Old is gold but gold has peaked. And from here on the faster we appeal to GenZ, the more likely we are to continue growing this part of our business. Because GenZ is not reading newspapers but watching reels, not watching TV but looking for insta gratification, not scrolling websites but spending a good part of their day on their handheld devices.
I’m saying again what I said last year—the old traditional formats are irrelevant and viewers are not paying attention. News is fast getting replaced by nuance and nous. So while AI will eat into the traditional model of news, probably even augment it, real intelligence will separate the wheat from the chaff.
And that’s what our brands should do in the coming year. Our digital-first platforms such as Firstpost and Kadak will lead the way. Our leading brands News18 India and CNN-News18 will up their CTV and social media game.
A decade of leadership — and a call to dream bigger
I’ve completed ten years in this incredible organisation with all you lovely and talented people. In 2026, I want us to work in mission mode to provide our young leaders a platform to grow and take charge. Hire young, think younger, dream bigger—that should be the motto in 2026.
We made 2025 count in what was for many a very challenging year. Let’s make 2026 rock.
To borrow a line from Roald Dahl, “those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
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