This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri and Manisha Pande, and The News Minute’s Dhanya Rajendran and Sudipto Mondal áre joined by senior journalist Josy Joseph for a special Hafta and South Central crossover episode on the future of media.

Josy begins the discussion by arguing that the decline of newspapers and television is accelerating, not only due to technology, but also because of a compromised business model. He points out that while balance sheets are “artificially protected” through government and corporate advertising, the reality is stark

Dhanya shares hard lessons on what audiences pay for. While issues like climate change receive constant calls for coverage, they draw little financial support. “Everybody’s always asking why you guys are not reporting on the environment… but that is one fund people hardly pay,” she says. 

Manisha adds that the future role of journalism lies in helping audiences think critically in an “age of reels and feels.” 

“While others can trigger emotions, journalists can provide context, history, and perspective,” she says. 

On the replacement for legacy media, Josy says, “What you people are doing at The News Minute and Newslaundry, to me, is a great laboratory of experiment. You are actually bringing journalism back as the intellectual property for which people should pay,” he says.

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Timecodes

00:00:00 – Introductions and announcements

00:12:26 – Headlines 

00:37:42 -  Discussion on the future of media 

01:28:17 - Recommendations

References 

Media Rumble registration 

NL Sena: Urban India’s elite takeover

Recommendations

Abhinandan

Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ezra Klein Hash Out Their Charlie Kirk Disagreement

Pete Hegseth and Trump speech

Manisha

Rule change to record spend: The untold story of Uttarakhand’s Rs 1,001 crore ad spree

Homebound 

Dhanya Rajendran 

Meow Meow

Sudipto Mondal 

Ambedkar's Buddha and his Dhamma in 2022: Undefined and evolving 

Check out previous Hafta recommendations, references, songs and letters.

Recorded by Priyali Dhingra and Bhuvan Malik. Production assistance by Ajai.

Edited by Jaseem Ali, produced by Amit Pandey.