The News Minute

About The News Minute

The News Minute is a digital news platform published from Bengaluru, focused on news from South India. Founded in 2014 by Dhanya Rajendran, Vignesh Vellore and veteran investigative journalist Chitra Subramaniam, it covers the five southern states of Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, a region home to some 250 million people. The outlet describes itself as a female-driven newsroom bringing a feminist perspective to coverage of everything from child rights to politics and pop culture. It offers in-depth analysis, breaking news and opinion, filling what its founders saw as an information gap in national coverage of the south. The News Minute operates bureaus across the five states, publishes newsletters including "Here's the Thing" and "Daily Wrap," and has built a membership programme supported by readers in India and the diaspora. Its tagline is "Look south, think TNM."

Founding and launch

The News Minute was founded in 2014 by Dhanya Rajendran, her husband Vignesh Vellore and Chitra Subramaniam. Rajendran had been the South India bureau chief of the news channel Times Now, after earlier stints at Kerala's first 24-hour news channel India Vision from 2003 and the New Indian Express in Chennai from 2004. She began her career after studying journalism at the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai. Vellore is the chief executive officer of the company, while Subramaniam is an award-winning journalist best known for her investigative reporting on the Bofors scandal in the 1980s. The site started with fewer than a dozen employees and began its journey as a news aggregator curating content from South India, before moving into original reporting when the founders found that much newsworthy content from the region was not reaching national news websites. An early breakthrough came in 2014 when the site fact-checked a claim that an individual had been felicitated by NASA, contacting officials at the American space agency to establish that the story was false, an episode that helped the young publication gain attention.

Dhanya Rajendran

Dhanya Rajendran is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The News Minute. Born and raised in Palakkad, Kerala, she has more than fifteen years of experience across print, television and digital journalism. Before founding the site, she reported extensively on Indo-Sri Lanka politics, human rights violations and corruption as Times Now's South India bureau chief. She has described feeling disillusioned with her options after a sabbatical and deciding to enter the digital arena by launching her own platform. Rajendran has endured targeted online harassment for her journalism and for challenging abusive celebrity fan culture and political trolling. In 2025 she was shortlisted for the Reporters Without Borders Impact Prize, an acknowledgement of her coverage of gender, social injustice and political power and of her role in building one of India's most trusted online newsrooms at a time of economic and political pressure on independent journalism. She is also a member of the Network of Women in Media, India.

Editorial focus on South India

The News Minute's defining characteristic is its exclusive focus on South India. Co-founder and CEO Vignesh Vellore has said the outlet wants to be known as the voice of South India, and the company has consciously decided not to expand into the northern states, holding that there is a complete model for credible English-language news from the south covering the five states. Its reporters are deeply rooted in the region, and its coverage spans politics, society, education, health, law, policy, entertainment, pop culture and lifestyle. The outlet's videos, interviews, analysis and documentaries bring local stories and insights that national television channels and regional media often overlook. The News Minute has deliberately stayed out of the breaking-news race, with Vellore stating the principle that the publication must be completely sure before publishing a story. The site also aggregates news from other media houses alongside its original journalism.

Feminist newsroom

The News Minute prides itself on being a female-driven team, with women making up about 65 percent of its editorial staff, who are generally of a younger demographic. Feminist thinking is embedded in its stories, and the outlet has set standards for sensitive, on-the-ground coverage of issues related to children and women. Its gender-justice perspective shapes how it reports on subjects including sexual violence, child rights, workplace discrimination and the representation of women in politics and public life. The International Press Institute's case study of the outlet notes that its value proposition rests on deep access to India's southern states combined with this distinctive editorial lens. The feminist orientation extends to the newsroom's internal culture and to its public advocacy for the rights of small independent newsrooms to operate outside corporate media conglomerates.

Investigative reporting

The News Minute has built a reputation for investigative journalism despite its modest size. It was one of the first media houses to conduct extensive investigative research into the operations of the Vedanta Sterlite copper plant in Thoothukudi, well before the 2018 police firing that killed 13 protesters and led to the plant's closure. Its reporting on the Tamil Nadu and Kerala floods has been widely noted, including its ground coverage of the 2018 Kerala floods, the worst in a century, which national media initially relegated to small features even as the crisis deepened. One of Rajendran's own investigative stories exposed a drunk IAS officer's attempt to cover up his involvement in a car crash that killed a motorbike-borne journalist in Thiruvananthapuram. The outlet has also partnered with Newslaundry for election coverage, combining strengths to increase ground reporting on issues under-covered by mainstream media, including gendered analyses of polls and explorations of the idea of India among different communities.

Business model and membership

The News Minute received early-stage funding from Quintillion Media, the company of Ritu Kapur and Raghav Bahl, within a year of its founding, and maintains a content-sharing agreement with The Quint. Its revenue comes from a mix of advertising and reader support. With support from the Google News Initiative, the outlet analysed user behaviour and found that its most ardent readers were willing to pay for its journalism, leading it to launch a membership programme. Around half of its members joined within the first five months of the programme, and by late 2021 it had reached about 3,000 subscribers in India and across the world. It subsequently launched a membership product targeting non-resident Indian communities in North America, West Asia and the United Kingdom. Articles are distributed through a newsletter and social media platforms, with a weekly interview newsletter called "Here's the Thing" and a "Daily Wrap" delivering the day's news to members and readers.

Audience and reach

The News Minute targets local audiences in India's southern states while also drawing support from the Indian diaspora worldwide. Early accounts credited the site with several million monthly visitors, and its YouTube and social channels extend its reach through video storytelling, interviews and documentaries. The outlet's slogan, "Look south, think TNM," captures its ambition to be the first destination for news about the region. Its readership includes politically engaged citizens, policymakers and members of the southern Indian diaspora seeking credible English-language coverage of their home states. The publication's crisis reporting, explanatory journalism and cultural coverage have made it a reference point for national media outlets seeking to understand southern Indian politics and society.

Recognition

The News Minute has been recognised as one of India's most credible independent news portals. The International Press Institute selected it as a case study in its Local Journalism Project, highlighting its audience strategy, feminist newsroom and membership model. Dhanya Rajendran's shortlisting for the 2025 Reporters Without Borders Impact Prize brought international attention to the outlet's work on gender justice and its resilience under political and economic pressure. Journalism schools and media researchers frequently cite The News Minute as an example of successful regional digital news entrepreneurship in India. Its reporters have won awards for their ground reporting, and the outlet's coverage of elections, floods and industrial controversies has been credited with putting South India firmly in the national narrative.

Role in Indian digital media

The News Minute demonstrated that a regionally focused digital newsroom could thrive in India's crowded media market without chasing national breaking news. Its journey from aggregator to original-reporting newsroom, its early adoption of fact-checking, its feminist editorial identity and its reader-membership model have made it a template for sustainable local journalism. The outlet's decision to remain focused on five states, rather than expanding nationally, articulated a theory that depth of regional access matters more than breadth of coverage. In partnership with outlets such as Newslaundry, it has shown how independent newsrooms can pool resources to cover national events like general elections. More than a decade after its founding, The News Minute stands as the leading English-language digital voice of South India and an influential model for independent journalism in the country.