Scroll.in

History and Founding

Scroll.in was launched in January 2014 as an English-language digital news publication, founded by entrepreneur Samir Patil, veteran journalist Naresh Fernandes, and Jennifer O'Brien, who had previously served as head of business development at the travel startup Trabblr. The venture was built on an explicit conviction — articulated by Patil before launch in an interview with the New York Times — that "India deserves a better national newspaper than what we have."

Patil brought an unusual background to the project. An MIT alumnus with degrees from both the Sloan School of Management and the School of Engineering, he had worked as an associate partner at McKinsey & Company in New York before returning to India. There, he founded ACK Media in 2007, the company that revived and published the beloved children's comic brand Amar Chitra Katha and the magazine Tinkle. Under his leadership, ACK Media expanded from a publishing house into a multimedia company producing children's content in partnership with Time Warner and Disney, including India's leading online destination for children's programming, mobile games, TV shows, and films. Patil sold ACK Media to Future Ventures, the investment arm of the Future Group, in 2012, then incorporated Scroll Media Inc. — registered in Delaware, United States — in preparation for the launch of Scroll.in.

Fernandes came to the project as one of Mumbai's most accomplished journalists. He had served as editor-in-chief of Time Out India (with editions in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore), reported for the Associated Press in Mumbai, worked at The Wall Street Journal in New York and The Times of India. He was also the author of the award-winning book Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay's Jazz Age, which won the Dr. Ashok Ranade Memorial Award and the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize, and was written during a Poiesis Fellowship at New York University's Institute of Public Knowledge. He became editor-in-chief of Scroll.in at launch and has held that position since.

In July 2014, Scroll.in received early-stage investment from the Omidyar Network — the philanthropic investment firm founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar — and the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), a New York-based nonprofit that provides financing to independent news organizations in emerging markets. The publication also received early grant support from the Independent and Public-Spirited Media Foundation (IPSMF), an Indian trust supporting public-interest journalism.

In June 2014, Scroll Media Inc. partnered with Atlantic Media to launch the Indian edition of the business news brand Quartz, positioning Scroll as a key hub in India's emerging digital media landscape. In 2015, the Hindi-language publishing company Satyagrah — founded and edited by Sanjay Dubey, who had previously edited Tehelka's Hindi edition — merged with Scroll Media and became Scroll's Hindi-language counterpart. Satyagrah continues to publish original reporting under its own brand, with Dubey as editor; it is not a translation of Scroll.in's English content. In December 2018, Scroll.in partnered with Deutsche Welle to launch Eco India, a weekly environmental program that became a significant video and multimedia operation covering environmental stories across South Asia.

In March 2018, Fernandes announced a partial shift toward a subscription model, allowing readers to support the publication in exchange for an ad-free experience and access to archives, while stating that no paywalls would be implemented and that all journalism would remain freely accessible. A significant funding milestone came in April 2022, when Scroll Media secured a reported $30 million Series A extension led by Bain Capital, with participation from the Omidyar Network, bringing total reported funding across five rounds to approximately $32.4 million.

Coverage and Content

Scroll.in covers Indian and international news across politics, society, culture, sports, science, and technology. The publication's editorial approach has been described by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism as resembling "a news wire in combination with in-depth reporting and commentary pieces" — aiming for literary quality and analytical depth rather than the volume-driven pace of conventional digital news aggregators. Patil has described quality journalism as the site's defining competitive advantage, and Fernandes has articulated a goal of producing something like a cross between an "up-market wire service and quality magazine."

Scroll.in has a particular reputation for political reporting, investigative journalism, and cultural coverage. It operates dedicated sections covering books, film, and arts, and has published notable contributors including Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy. The Hindi-language Satyagrah platform publishes original reporting on Indian politics and society for Hindi-speaking audiences. The Eco India series, produced in partnership with Deutsche Welle, focuses on environmental and climate stories across South Asia and has developed its own video and multimedia production capacity, winning a Ramnath Goenka Award for a report on Maharashtra's women farmers.

The publication's organizational structure divides staff into two distinct teams: an editorial team responsible for reporting, editing, and content production — which includes an ombudsman for additional oversight — and a distribution team composed of social media and search algorithm analysts who manage the publication's digital reach and audience development. This separation, noted in a Columbia Journalism Review analysis, reflected an early caution among Scroll's print-trained journalists about the "credibility of digital media."

Scroll.in grew to more than 10 million unique visitors per month, a figure that made it, at the time it was reported, the largest web-only news site in India by that metric. The publication has also developed a technology and machine learning team that produced SocialWire, a consumer-facing content distribution product.

Awards and Recognition

Scroll.in and its journalists have won multiple national and international journalism awards. In 2018, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers named Scroll.in the Best News Website in South Asia, and the publication won two Gold Awards in the WAN-IFRA South Asian Digital Media Awards that year.

Individual staff and contributors have won five Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards, presented annually by the Indian Express Group and among India's most prestigious journalism prizes. Notable recipients include Supriya Sharma (2015, political reporting) and Mridula Chari (environment reporting). Satyagrah's Rahul Kotiyal won a Ramnath Goenka Award in 2016 for reporting on an RSS and Bajrang Dal campaign targeting interfaith marriage. Scroll journalists have also won six RedInk Awards for Excellence in Journalism from the Mumbai Press Club, five Shriram Awards, multiple Laadli Media Awards for gender-sensitive reporting, and a Covering Climate Now Journalism Award for business and economics coverage.

In 2016, contributor Malini Subramaniam — who had been expelled from Chhattisgarh after reporting on conflict and security forces in the region — won the Committee to Protect Journalists' International Press Freedom Award, one of the most recognized honors in global press freedom advocacy. The publication has also received an award from the International Center for Journalists (ICJ).

Access and Funding

All Scroll.in content is freely accessible at scroll.in. Readers may support the publication through a voluntary subscription that provides an ad-free reading experience and archive access; no content sits behind a paywall. The publication states its commitment to editorial independence from its investors and funders.

Scroll Media Inc. is a privately held company registered in Delaware, United States, with a branch in Massachusetts and operations based in India. Samir Patil holds the roles of president, treasurer, secretary, and director. The shareholding structure has not been publicly disclosed. Investors include the Omidyar Network, the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), the Independent and Public-Spirited Media Foundation (IPSMF), and, from the 2022 funding round, Bain Capital.

Scroll.in / Scroll Media Inc.
Mumbai, India

Website: scroll.in
Hindi edition: Satyagrah
Environmental series: Eco India
Contact: letters@scroll.in

Metadata

Categories: Independent News Organizations · Digital News Organizations · India and South Asia News · Investigative Journalism · Multilingual Publications · Subscription-Supported Media

Mission: To add critical perspectives to the stories shaping contemporary India through rigorous reporting, objective analysis, and expert commentary, upholding the role of the free press as the fourth pillar of democracy.

Year Founded: 2014

Description: Scroll.in is an independent English-language digital news publication, founded in 2014 by Samir Patil and Naresh Fernandes. Reaching more than 10 million unique visitors per month, it covers politics, society, culture, environment, and sports through in-depth reporting and analysis. It operates a Hindi-language sister site, Satyagrah, and an environmental video series, Eco India, produced in partnership with Deutsche Welle. Named Best News Website in South Asia by WAN-IFRA in 2018, its journalists have won five Ramnath Goenka Awards, six RedInk Awards, and the CPJ International Press Freedom Award.

URL: https://scroll.in