AI, revenue, audience trust dominate Digital Media India 2026
The Digital Media Awards South Asia 2026 ceremony also took place during the event, and The Hindu Group was named Champion Publisher of the Year.
AI, audience growth and new business models shape Day 1
The conference opened with a keynote by Stig Ørskov, CEO of WAN-IFRA, who outlined five transformations shaping the future of journalism and media businesses: a balanced revenue model, taking control of the AI journey, building audience-first newsrooms, embracing the news creator economy, and a focus on audio/video.
A CEO roundtable featuring LV Navaneeth (The Hindu Group), Sowbhagyalakshmi Tilak (The Printers Mysore Ltd.), and Sumanta Datta (ABP Network) explored platform dependency and long-term growth strategies for digital news businesses in India.
“85-90 percent of revenues and most profits for legacy publishers come from physical products. It is not either print or digital; there is a need to protect and grow physical while doubling down on digital efforts,” said LV Navaneeth.
Day 1 sessions covered audience engagement, reader revenue, AI adoption, and emerging business opportunities, with speakers from Brut India, Times Internet, Manorama Online, Newslaundry, Prothom Alo, NDTV, and Amar Ujala.
Journalism’s role in the AI era takes centre stage
AI remained a central theme throughout the conference, with discussions examining how publishers can adapt to changing patterns of content discovery, audience behaviour, and monetisation.
Day 2 featured conversations on generative AI’s impact on news businesses, audience intelligence, newsroom automation, and digital transformation, with speakers from Indian Express, Jagran New Media, Collective Newsroom, amongst others.
Vertika Kanaujia, who leads editorial operations at Financial Express Digital, argued that the page view, long treated as newsrooms’ default measure of success, is becoming an unreliable one. “Once page views became the target, headline-chasing and clickbait followed,” she said.
WAN-IFRA also led an Newsroom Innovation Study Tour through four Delhi newsrooms: Times Internet, The Quint, Collective Newsroom, and Brut India, covering AI-driven personalisation, mobile-first trust-building, multilingual scale, and data-led video formats.
Celebrating digital innovation across South Asia
Three publishers took the lion’s share of honours at the Digital Media Awards South Asia 2026 ceremony. The Hindu led with seven wins spanning AI, audience engagement, marketing, and audio, and was named Champion Publisher of the Year. HT Media Group followed with six wins, while Collective Newsroom took three. Prothom Alo, Manorama Online, and The Daily Star each picked up two wins.
More about Digital Media India 2026
Full programme details are available here. See pictures from the event on Flickr, and follow the conversation on X via #DMI2026. For a calendar of upcoming WAN-IFRA events, visit events.wan-ifra.org.
Contact
Magdoom Mohamed, Managing Director, WAN-IFRA South Asia (magdoom.mohamed@wan-ifra.org), or Thai Anban, Business Development Manager, WAN-IFRA South Asia (thai.anban@wan-ifra.org).
About
WAN-IFRA, the World Association of News Publishers, is the global organisation of the world’s press, comprising 3,000 news publishers and technology companies and 40 national publishers’ associations representing 18,000 publications in 120 countries. WAN-IFRA supports its members in innovating and prospering in a digital world. The World Editors Forum is its network for editors. wan-ifra.org
