ABSTRACT
Hindustan Times is at the forefront of a digital transformation. At the ninety-year-old institution, the process of changing a print behemoth that is the second-most circulated newspaper in India has spanned both process changes and a change in attitude called “Digital First”. The way news is planned, presented and packaged is strikingly different. The radical transformation begs the question: Why digital? What does the digital future look like? What is it imagined to be?
This chapter interrogates questions surrounding the process of newsrooms going digital and its impact on news and readers. Through Hindustan Times’ transformation, we will try to understand digital journalism – is it elitist in a country where Internet penetration is deeply classed, casted and gendered, or is it a bold dream for the future where freer and less-censored content shall find its way to a sections of people who had little access to formal media?
