Scroll.in

About Scroll.in

Scroll.in is an Indian digital news and culture publication published from Mumbai. Launched in January 2014, it was founded by Samir Patil, the entrepreneur behind ACK Media, publisher of Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle, together with senior journalist Naresh Fernandes and Jennifer O'Brien, formerly head of business development at the travel startup Trabblr. Scroll.in publishes in-depth reporting, commentary and cultural writing across politics, business, sport, culture and current affairs, and is owned by SCSN Pvt Ltd. It began as one of India's earliest serious digital-native newsrooms, designed from the ground up for a new generation of online readers rather than as a repurposed newspaper or magazine format. The publication won the "News Start-up of the Year" award at the 2015 RedInk journalism awards, and operates both an English edition and a Hindi edition, Satyagrah.

Founding and launch

Scroll.in was launched in January 2014 through the holding company of Scroll Media Inc, a company incorporated in Delaware, United States, that had been founded by Samir Patil in 2012. Patil was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumnus and former McKinsey & Company associate who had earlier founded ACK Media, the Indian publisher of the comic-book brands Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle, selling that venture to the Future Group in 2011 before moving into digital media. He partnered with Naresh Fernandes, previously the editor-in-chief of Time Out India and a journalist associated with The Times of India and The Wall Street Journal, and Jennifer O'Brien, the former head of business development at the travel startup Trabblr. Fernandes became the editor-in-chief of Scroll.in. The publication received early-stage investments from the IPS Media Foundation, the Media Development Investment Fund and the investment firm Omidyar Network, following an endorsement from the law firm Khaitan & Co. In interviews, Fernandes has noted that Scroll began its journey on 26 January 2014 and quickly built a wide readership, demonstrating that well-written long-form stories on subjects such as rural employment schemes could attract large online audiences.

Naresh Fernandes and the editorial leadership

Naresh Fernandes has been the editor of Scroll.in since its inception and has shaped the digital platform's editorial character. Before founding Scroll, he served as the editor-in-chief of Time Out India and worked as a journalist with The Times of India and The Wall Street Journal. He is also an author, having written books including Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay's Jazz Age, City Adrift: A Short Biography of Bombay and Bombay, Meri Jaan. Fernandes's editorial philosophy emphasises that irrespective of the medium, journalists can hold people in power to account, and he has described digital media as more rewarding than other mediums while requiring more capable people. He has spoken candidly about the strengths and limitations of a digital platform, online trolling and the challenges facing journalism. The Hindi edition of the publication, Satyagrah, has a separate editorial team led by Sanjay Dubey, the founder and editor of Satyagrah who was previously the editor of Tehelka's Hindi edition.

Ownership and organisation

Scroll.in is owned by SCSN Pvt Ltd and operates through Scroll Media Inc. The organisation's staff are segregated into two divisions: the editorial team and the distribution team. According to a Columbia Journalism Review account, this segregation reflected caution about the credibility of digital media among former print journalists who made up the editorial team of the new publication. The editorial team includes an appointed ombudsman for additional editorial oversight. The distribution team is staffed with analysts of social media and search-result algorithms who manage the publication's distribution assets, which include the website, an Android app, two email newsletters and a range of social media channels across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. A Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism report described Scroll's content delivery as resembling a news wire combined with in-depth reporting and commentary, targeted at an up-market, elite-oriented audience, with a business strategy built around premium native advertising and e-commerce. The company also operates an online shop for books and literary accessories based on recommendations from the editorial team.

Partnerships and expansion

In June 2014, within months of its launch, Atlantic Media partnered with Scroll Media Inc to launch the Indian edition of the business news brand Quartz, known as Quartz India. The following year, the Hindi media publishing company Satyagrah was merged with Scroll Media and became the Hindi edition of Scroll.in, continuing to operate under the name Satyagrah with its own editorial team. In December 2018, the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle partnered with Scroll.in to launch its Indian weekly programme Eco India as part of DW's venture into the South Asian media industry. Scroll also maintains a content-sharing and business relationship with Quintillion Media, the company behind The Quint. These partnerships positioned Scroll as a collaborator of choice for international media organisations seeking a foothold in India's digital news market, reflecting its reputation for editorial quality and its strong distribution capabilities.

Business model and subscriptions

In March 2018, Scroll.in partially shifted towards a subscription business model, offering ad-free delivery of its news service and access to archives for subscribers. Editor-in-chief Naresh Fernandes stated that the publication would not implement any paywall, keeping the journalism freely available while inviting readers to support it. The company describes itself on professional profiles as a digital publishing company whose main purpose is to add critical perspectives to the things that matter to public debate in India, developing new publications and the technology to deliver them to mobile phones, tablets and other digital devices rather than repurposing or aggregating newspaper, magazine and broadcast formats. Between May and June 2019, Scroll.in laid off a number of editorial staff, citing a restructuring of its business model. More than a decade after its launch, Scroll has continued to appeal to readers to support its journalism through membership, noting that keeping its reporting free to read does not mean it is free to produce.

Editorial coverage and style

Scroll.in describes its mission as adding critical perspectives on the things that matter to public debate in India. Its coverage spans politics, policy, business, science, sport, culture, cinema and current affairs, with a distinctive emphasis on long-form reporting and ideas writing. The publication has carried influential investigations, ground reports and commentary on subjects ranging from elections and communal politics to the environment and the arts. Its cultural coverage, including film writing and literary features, has been a signature element distinguishing it from conventional news portals. Scroll's editors have designed its publications ground-up for digital audiences, with a simple and responsive website design for easy accessibility, and formats tailored to mobile-first reading habits. The site's blend of reportage, opinion, video and features is aimed at encouraging critical thinking about contemporary issues among its readers.

Audience and reach

Scroll.in targets an up-market, digitally native audience of readers interested in in-depth news, analysis and commentary. The Reuters Institute characterised its readership as elite-oriented, comparable to Quartz's audience in the United States. The publication's early growth demonstrated that Indian readers would engage deeply with challenging long-form journalism online: Fernandes has recounted the team's astonishment at discovering that readers would read 3,000-word stories on subjects such as the rural employment guarantee scheme in Chhattisgarh, provided the stories were well written and well told. Scroll's distribution strategy, which pairs an editorial team with a dedicated distribution team skilled in social media and search algorithms, has been central to building its audience. Its content reaches readers through the website, mobile app, newsletters, podcasts and video, with a significant presence on social platforms including Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.

Awards and recognition

Scroll.in received early industry recognition when it was named "News Start-up of the Year" at the 2015 RedInk journalism awards, an honour administered by the Mumbai Press Club that recognises excellence in Indian journalism. The award acknowledged Scroll's role as a pioneering digital-native newsroom in India. Over the following decade, the publication has been widely cited in media-studies literature and journalism research as a case study of digital news entrepreneurship, including in the Reuters Institute's studies of news startups and in academic work on digital-first journalism in India. Naresh Fernandes has been invited to speak at institutions including Brandeis University, where he delivered a lecture in 2016 on how computers changed the Indian newsroom, and has been interviewed extensively about the business and editorial challenges of sustaining independent digital journalism.

Role in Indian digital media

Scroll.in was part of the first wave of Indian digital news startups that emerged in the mid-2010s alongside outlets such as The Wire, The Quint and The News Minute. It demonstrated that a publication designed specifically for digital consumption, with serious reporting and cultural writing, could build a loyal, large readership in India without a print or television parent. Its organisational model, separating editorial and distribution functions and appointing an ombudsman, reflected an attempt to build digital-native newsroom norms from scratch. The publication's journey, including its experiments with subscriptions, its partnerships with international brands such as Quartz and Deutsche Welle, and its Hindi expansion through Satyagrah, illustrates the evolving business strategies of independent Indian digital media. More than a decade after its founding, Scroll remains a prominent voice in Indian public debate, known for in-depth reporting, critical perspectives and cultural journalism.