On Internet, there are online portals which cover multiple interests from politics, to sports, to entertainment. In fact, these could be considered as counterparts of a newspaper in print or a news channel on TV. Most of these websites are less than three years old. They can also cover the live events, e.g. the recent Bihar assembly elections with the help of smart phones, dispensing with the OB van set up. They are speedier and quickly accessible. They are less intrusive. Some popular portals are The Quint, The Wire, Quartz, Scroll and Catch News. There are video too on such portals with analytical articles. Such portals attract traffic — of course small, say from a few million unique visitors. Such portals are accessed on smart phones. Most users are young. They adopt a fresh approach to news — they are bold. Their content may not be available in the mainstream media. It is independent of conventional media. They attempt democratization of news. They are facing competition from the established conventional media, say ndtv.com or times ofindia.com. The established companies get the cost benefits of an already existing infrastructure.
Most of these websites employ a batch of reporters, say some 80 reporters are working for Quint to cover politics, sport and entertainment on the lines of a mainstrean newspaper. The audience of these web sites is young and drawn from smart phone users and social media users. Online, it is to produce once and distribute endlessly. This is an advantage. Online sites too have started giving analytics of their audience to attract advertisers. It is still a moot point whether the business model of online news sites will sustain quality journalism. Such quality can be sustained if they are paid for or are subsidized. Indian sites solicit subscriptions and donations.
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