Scroll.in, simply referred to as Scroll, is an Indian digital news publication. Founded in 2014, it is owned by SCSN Pvt Ltd.

History

Background

Samir Patil, a

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

alumnus and

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company (informally McKinsey or McK) is an American multinational strategy and management consulting firm that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinse ...

associate was the founder of ACK Media which published Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. In 2011, he sold the venture to the Future Group and founded the Scroll Media Inc in the following year. The company was incorporated in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

, United States.

Launch

Scroll.in was launched in January 2014 as an Indian news website through the holding company of Scroll Media Incorporation. It was founded by Samir Patil and senior journalist Naresh Fernandes, along with Jennifer O'Brien, the former head of

business development Business development entails tasks and processes to develop and implement growth opportunities within and between business organizations. It is a subset of the fields of business, commerce and organizational theory. Business development is the cre ...

at the travel startup Trabblr. Naresh Fernandes who was previously the editor-in-chief of ''Time Out India'' and a journalist associated with ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' and ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', became the editor-in-chief of Scroll.in. The publication had received early stage investments from the IPS Media Foundation, the

Media Development Investment Fund Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), formerly Media Development Loan Fund, is a New York-registered non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and mission-driven investment fund that provides low-cost financing to independent news and information bus ...

and the investment firm of

Omidyar Network Omidyar Network is a self-styled "philanthropic investment firm," composed of a foundation and an impact investment firm. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, Omidyar Network has committed over US$1.5billion to no ...

, following an endorsement from the law firm Khaitan & Co.

Partnerships

In June 2014,

Atlantic Media Atlantic Media, Inc. is an American print and online media company owned by David G. Bradley and based in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. It held numerous publications and businesses. Since 2020, it holds a minority stake in ''The Atl ...

partnered with the Scroll Media Inc to launch the Indian edition of the business news brand ''

Quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

''. In the following year, the Hindi media publishing company Satyagrah was merged with Scroll Media and became the Hindi edition of Scroll.in which continues to operate under the name of Satyagrah. Sanjay Dubey who was the founder and editor of Satyagrah and previously the editor of ''

Tehelka ''Tehelka'' () is an Indian news magazine known for its investigative journalism and sting operations. According to the British newspaper ''The Independent'', the ''Tehelka'' was founded by Tarun Tejpal, Aniruddha Bahal and another colleague ...

''s Hindi edition, remained as the editor of Satyagrah. In March 2018, the publication partially shifted towards a

subscription business model The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century. It ...

providing ad free delivery of news service and access to archives for subscribers. Naresh Fernandes, the editor-in-chief however stated that the publication will not implement any

paywall A paywall is a method of restricting access to content (media), content, with a purchase or a subscription business model, paid subscription, especially news. Beginning in the mid-2010s, newspapers started implementing paywalls on their website ...

s. In December 2018,

Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...

partnered with Scroll.in to launch its Indian weekly programme, Eco India as part of DW's venture into the South Asian media industry. Between May–June 2019, ''Scroll.in'' laid off a number of editorial staff citing a restructure of their business model.

Organisation

Scroll's staff are segregated into two divisions; the editorial team and the distribution team. In an article of the

Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its original purpose was "to assess the performance ...

, the segregation was explained as the result of caution associated with the "credibility of

digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, an ...

" prevalent among the former print medium journalists who constituted the editorial team of the new publication. The editorial team in addition consists of an appointed

ombudsman An ombudsman ( , also ) is a government employee who investigates and tries to resolve complaints, usually through recommendations (binding or not) or mediation. They are usually appointed by the government or by parliament (often with a sign ...

for additional editorial oversight. Naresh Fernandes is the current editor-in-chief of the website. The Hindi edition of the publication, Satyagrah, has a separate editorial team with Sanjay Dubey as the editor-in-chief. The

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations *Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a varia ...

team of the publication is staffed with analysts of social media and search result

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algo ...

who manage the distribution assets of the publication.

Content

According to a report from the

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) is a UK-based research centre and think tank founded in 2006, which operates Thomson Reuters Journalism Fellowship Programme, also known as the Reuters Fellowship. History The institute ...

, the content delivery of the Scroll.in resembles "almost the pace of a

newswire A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswir ...

with the depth and sophistication of a quality news magazine," while the presentation of the site was described to be targeted toward an "up-market" audience and compared favorably with ''

''. The publication's business strategy aims to generate income through premium

native advertising Native advertising, also called sponsored content, partner content, and branded journalism, is a type of paid advertising that appears in the style and format of the content near the advertisement's placement. It manifests as a post, image, vide ...

and

sponsored content Native advertising, also called sponsored content, partner content, and branded journalism, is a type of paid advertising that appears in the style and format of the content near the advertisement's placement. It manifests as a post, image, vide ...

, resembling that of traditional magazine advertising rather than obtrusive ads that distract or annoy the reader. The report also described the publication to have developed a simple and responsive design for its website for the purpose of easy accessibility. In addition to the primary website, the distribution of Scroll's content is provided through an Android app, two email

newsletter A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of ...

s and an array of

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

channels across

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

, and

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. Scroll also operates an online shop for books and literary accessories based on recommendations from the editorial team.

Awards

*Scroll.in's journalist Supriya Sharma won the

Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards The Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards (RNG Awards) are one of the awards in India in the field of journalism. Named after Ramnath Goenka, the awards have been held annually since 2006, with the 12th edition being held in 2017. The awa ...

for 2015. She was noted to be the first journalist from a digital news organisation to receive the award. *Scroll.in's journalist Priyanka Vora was one of the winners of the 2016

Early Childhood Development Early childhood development is the period of rapid physical, psychological and social growth and change that begins before birth and extends into early childhood. While early childhood is not well defined, one source asserts that the early years b ...

Reporting Contest conducted by the

International Center for Journalists International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is a non-profit, professional organization located in Washington, D.C., United States, that promotes journalism worldwide. Since 1984, the International Center for Journalists has worked directly with ...

. *Scroll.in Hindi website Satyagrah journalist Rahul Kotiyal won the

for 2016, for reporting on a campaign by RSS and Bajrang Dal named " Beti Bachao Bahu Lao". The campaign attempted to stop Hindu girls from marrying non-Hindus. If RSS members get information of a Hindu girl planning to marry a Muslim man, then the RSS members would track the girl and would inform the parents of the girl accusing this to be a case of

Love Jihad Love jihad (or Romeo jihad) is an Islamophobic conspiracy theory promoted by right-wing Hindutva activists. The conspiracy theory purports that Muslim men target Hindu women for conversion to Islam by means such as seduction, feigning love ...

. *Scroll.in's journalist Malini Subramaniam won the CPJ International Press Freedom Awards for 2016. *Scroll.in's journalists won four Red Ink Awards for 2017 for Excellence in Journalism *Scroll.in's journalist Mridula Chari was one of the winners of the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards for 2017. *TScroll.in won two Gold Awards in the WAN-IFRA South Asian Digital Media Awards 2018. *Scroll.in's journalists Mridula Chari and Vinita Govindarajan again won the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards for 2019 for their investigation into the use of toxic pesticides enabled by tax regulations.

Readership

According to ''

Forbes India ''Forbes India'' is the Indian edition of ''Forbes'', which is managed by the Reliance Industries-owned media conglomerate, Network 18. History and profile Since its founding in 2008, ''Forbes India'' has achieved a circulation of 50,000 copies ...

'', the monthly unique readership of the website was four million as of August 2016.

References

External links

* * {{Media of India Indian journalism organisations Indian news websites Internet properties established in 2014 2014 establishments in India