A creative tension emerged from the INMA South Asia News Media Festival in Mumbai last week when it came to revenue diversification: The media business model of the future cannot lean solely on advertising and subscriptions.

To thrive — not merely survive — South Asian publishers are breaking out of the traditional mold, expanding into events, e-commerce, data services, branded content, and niche verticals.

What’s emerging is not just a new revenue playbook but a mindset shift. Publishers are reimagining themselves not just as content providers, but as solution companies, community builders, and commerce engines.

“Think less like a publisher. Think more like a solutions company,” urged Ashish Pherwani, partner at EY India, during the Mumbai conference. “You’re not just selling reach. You’re selling insight, trust, and access.”

Here’s how the region’s most forward-thinking media houses are unlocking revenue frontiers beyond the ad-sales comfort zone.

Events as intellectual property: building live communities

Events are no longer just brand extensions — they’re now business verticals in their own right. For ABP One, Hindustan Times, and The Hindu Group, events serve dual roles: revenue generators and community engagement tools:

• ABP’s Ideas of India Summit has become a flagship franchise, now entering its third year. Backed by sponsors and steeped in thought leadership, it’s proving editorial gravitas can travel well offline.

• Mint Mobility Conclave, produced by HT Media, brings together policymakers, automakers, and technologists under one roof — turning content themes into sponsorship magnets.

• The Hindu has taken its EducationPlus franchise to the ground, hosting career fairs and education expos monetised via institutional partnerships and on-site stalls.

These events are being treated as IP — not one-offs but assets with year-round digital footprints, spinoff content, and loyal attendees. It’s media as convenor, not just commentator.

Content meets commerce: media as marketplace

South Asian publishers are also pushing into e-commerce — but not in the generic “build a shop” sense. What’s unfolding is a far more nuanced intersection of content, context, and commerce.

Malayala Manorama is experimenting with festival-timed kits and regionally relevant products — think Diwali décor, religious books, or Onam-specific hampers. The aim is hyperlocal monetisation not mass-market retail.

Meanwhile, sports platform FanCode has showcased how content can anchor commerce — from team jerseys to microtransaction bundles tied to live matches. Limited-edition drops are timed to game days, tapping into fan emotion and urgency.

Rather than going head-to-head with marketplaces, publishers are leveraging content verticals — like food, parenting, astrology, or exam prep — to build trust-based commerce layers. Many are exploring affiliate models while others are trialling direct-to-consumer (D2C) launches and curated product platforms.

Data as a product: insights for sale

With strengthened first-party data infrastructure, South Asian media companies are starting to monetise AI — transparently and with purpose.

The Hindu Group and HT Media are among those leading the charge. Tactics include:

• Selling anonymised reader insight dashboards to brand partners.

• Offering data consultancy services to SMEs and agencies.

• Creating custom programmatic cohorts — e.g., “eco-conscious households” or “parents of school-age children in Tier 2 cities” — that unlock better ad targeting.

The difference lies in cultural context. Where global platforms offer scale, South Asian publishers offer relevance. It’s not just about knowing the user. It’s about knowing the nuance behind their decisions.

Branded content studios: from storytelling to solutions

The monetisation of storytelling has taken a major leap forward with the rise of in-house branded content studios.

As IPG Mediabrands showcased during the Mumbai study tour, agencies are increasingly turning to publishers not just for ad space — but for full-fledged campaign execution.

This includes:

• Explainer videos for complex brand propositions.

• Influencer-led series produced in collaboration with editorial teams.

• Social-first storytelling in regional languages, often in video or carousel formats.

Regional powerhouses like Loksatta and ABP Majha are tapping local creators to front campaigns — turning brand messaging into vernacular, trusted content. These studios function as creative agencies within media companies — nimble, integrated, and audience-aware.

Passion verticals: monetising life’s key moments

Some of the most exciting revenue innovation is happening around content-adjacent services that tap into life-stage needs or cultural interests:

• ABP and Jagran are capitalising on the subcontinental love of astrology with paid horoscope services, live consultations, and tiered subscriptions.

• The Hindu, The Times of India, and Dainik Bhaskar are running education portals that bundle college listings, entrance prep content, Webinars, and sponsorships into profitable ecosystems.

• Old-school classifieds are being reborn as matrimonial platforms, hyperlocal directories, and AI-powered job boards — often freemium in model, with monetisation via leads, placements, or premium listings.

These verticals work because they build on trust — and because they’re native to the audience’s needs. Rather than chasing scale, they go deep.

An innovation mindset: creating room to experiment

Behind these ventures lies a deliberate cultural shift. South Asia’s legacy media companies are creating internal structures that reward experimentation — even when it fails:

• At Times Internet, 10x teams are empowered to build entirely new businesses, measured not by pageviews but by revenue innovation.

• The Hindu has built a “lab culture” — where editors, developers, and marketers co-design products, run hackathons, and build prototypes with commercial potential.

• Some companies now hold annual revenue summits — strategy offsites focused solely on non-core business growth.

These aren’t side projects. They’re sanctioned spaces to rethink what media can be — away from the grind of the daily news cycle.

Legacy publishers eye creator economy windfall

As India’s creator economy races toward ₹5,000 crore by 2025, brands are shifting from episodic to year-round influencer investments. Satyanarayana Murthy noted that 92% of brands plan to increase influencer budgets, with Gen Z now relying heavily on creators for product discovery and purchase. 

For news publishers, this opens up a powerful revenue stream — if they can offer what influencer agencies can’t: credibility and regional relevance.

Lokmat’s Hemant Jain shared how the legacy publisher evolved into a multi-platform influencer model, building its own network of local creators sourced from community clubs and grassroots groups. 

“A local hero makes a bigger impact than a celebrity in hyper-local communities,” he said. 

A campaign with Amazon scaled from 20 to 300 influencers, drove 680 million views, and delivered measurable results — proof that integrated campaigns spanning print, digital, on-ground, and influencer content can work at scale.

Kedar Ravangave, drawing from his roles at Amazon and now Kotak, underscored the power of co-created campaigns with publishers who understand context. In one case, a publisher offered a performance-based model: “Pay us only if traffic goes up by 10%.” The success lay in blending editorial trust with influencer reach.

The takeaway: News publishers already have the assets to thrive in the creator economy — trusted content, engaged communities, and local insight. What’s needed is structure: smart creator networks, performance-linked models, and a commitment to authentic, brand-safe storytelling. 

Or as Jain put it, “Combine credibility with smart creation — and you’ll stay relevant.”

More than media: creating ecosystems

What’s unfolding across South Asia is a redefinition of the media brand — from channel to platform, from story to service.

“Your brand equity can do more than sell space or stories. It can sell solutions. Lean into that,” said Ashish Pherwani, in a remark that echoed throughout the conference.

And lean in they are.

From education expos to e-commerce storefronts, from astrology subscriptions to audience intelligence reports, South Asia’s publishers are diversifying not just for financial stability, but for strategic relevance in a rapidly changing information economy.

Conclusion: The new media playbook is multi-faceted

The takeaway from the INMA South Asia News Media Festival is unambiguous: Diversification is not optional. It’s the new core.

Advertising and subscriptions remain crucial, but they are no longer sufficient. The real growth lies in adjacent value creation: in monetising knowledge, in activating communities, and in embedding media into everyday decisions and rituals.

South Asian publishers are not abandoning their roots. They are building new branches — ones that stretch into commerce, data, culture, and service. And in doing so, they are ensuring that their brands remain indispensable — not just as news providers but as life partners to their audiences.

In a world of fractured attention and infinite choice, that may just be the most defensible position of all.

This article was written with the assistance of AI tools. All content has been reviewed and edited by a human editor to ensure accuracy and adherence to journalistic standards.

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