'A magazine like this was always a bit of a long shot': After nearly nine years, Fountain Ink shuts down

The Chennai-based longform magazine was started in November 2011.

WrittenBy:NL Team
Date:
Article image

Fountain Ink, the Chennai-based longform monthly magazine, has shut down after nearly nine years. The magazine's final issue, its 101st edition, is dated March 2020.

In his editor's note, editor Saurav Kumar wrote: "A magazine like this was always a bit of a long shot in terms of commercial viability. The distribution systems and broken and a drain on resources, getting advertisements is a mug's game, and year on year, even on the leanest of setups, costs can go only one way -- up."

subscription-appeal-image

Support Independent Media

The media must be free and fair, uninfluenced by corporate or state interests. That's why you, the public, need to pay to keep news free.

Contribute
imageby :
imageby :

Fountain Ink started in November 2011. Its stories have won 18 awards. Kumar's editor's note also mentioned the magazine's former reporter, Arpit Parashar, who died in December 2017.

In 2015, the magazine broke the story of Harjit Masih, one of 40 Indian workers kidnapped by ISIS. Masih escaped while the other 39 survived, and the story quoted a representative from the Ministry of External Affairs as saying there was no "proof of life". Sushma Swaraj, then the external affairs minister, insisted to the media and families of those kidnapped that the 39 Indians were alive. Swaraj only confirmed their deaths in 2018.

It's tough for independent media to survive in these times. That's why you need to pay to keep news free. Subscribe to Newslaundry here.

subscription-appeal-image

Power NL-TNM Election Fund

General elections are around the corner, and Newslaundry and The News Minute have ambitious plans together to focus on the issues that really matter to the voter. From political funding to battleground states, media coverage to 10 years of Modi, choose a project you would like to support and power our journalism.

Ground reportage is central to public interest journalism. Only readers like you can make it possible. Will you?

Support now

You may also like