At FICCI FRAMES 2025, Aroon Purie, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of the India Today Group, reflected on five decades in media, highlighting disruption, reinvention, and resilience as constants in India’s evolving media landscape.
Purie marked his 50th year in the industry, stating, “Disruption never ends. In fact, disruption is the only constant.” Tracing the journey from India Today magazine’s initial 5 million readers to the Group’s current 750 million audiences across platforms, he underscored the evolution from print to television, digital, and AI-led journalism, including India Today’s AI news anchor, SANA.
Yet, he cautioned about structural challenges. India’s media ecosystem, with over 1.4 lakh publications and 375 24-hour news channels, operates on fragile financial foundations. Highlighting ‘raddi economics’ in print and legacy constraints in broadcasting, he criticized government regulation that stifles rather than facilitates growth.
Purie also flagged the rise of Billionaire News Channels, owned by industrial houses prioritizing influence over information, which threaten journalism’s credibility and financial sustainability. The digital era, he argued, repeated past mistakes – giving away content for reach while new gatekeepers like Google, Facebook, YouTube, and X control distribution and monetisation, leaving media companies “crumbs.”
Looking ahead, AI represents the next major disruption. “Scraped and regurgitated content without credit or revenue poses an existential threat,” he warned. Urging the industry to reassert the value of credible journalism, Purie concluded: “Disruption is the new normal. We must use technology to tell stories memorably and truthfully. In a post-truth era, telling the truth matters more than ever – for the future of media, democracy, and India itself.”
