 | |
Type of site | News |
|---|---|
| Available in | English & Hindi |
| Owner | Quint Digital Limited[1] (formerly known as Quint Digital Media Limited)[2][3] |
| CEO | Ritu Kapur[4] |
| Key people | Raghav Bahl; Ritu Kapur |
| Employees | 155(as of March 2023)[5] |
| URL | www |
| Launched | 2015 |
The Quint is an English andHindi language Indian general news and opinion website founded byRaghav Bahl andRitu Kapur after their exit fromNetwork18.[6][7] The publication's journalists have won threeRamnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards and two Red Ink Awards.[8][9]
In May 2014,Raghav Bahl andRitu Kapur, the promoters ofNetwork18 ended their shareholding of the media conglomerate with the takeover byReliance Industries.[10] Following the controversial exit, they founded thedigital media company, Quintillion Media. The company was the first major investor in the tech startup Quintype founded byAmit Rathore.[7] Quintillion Media launchedThe Quint publication in January 2015 onFacebook and as a website by March 2015.[11][12] Quintype took over the digital technology operations of the publication.[12] By December 2016,The Quint website had crossed the mark of 10 million unique visitors.[13]
In February 2017,The Quint launched two online content verticalsQuint Neon, a lifestyle news section and QuintLabs, amultimedia exposition platform.[14] In the same year, it also launched the fact checking initiativeWebQoof and partnered withBBC News for the production of a video series to combatdisinformation.[15][14] In September 2018,Google India entered into a partnership withThe Quint, to host the "Bol: Love Your Bhasha" event featuringpanel discussions on media readership and business strategy with the objective of laying emphasis on the potential ofIndian languages.[14][16] The event was attended by Anant Goenka, the executive director of theIndian Express Group, Arvind Pani, the co-founder and CEO of Reverie Language Technologies and theMinister of Road Transport and Highways,Nitin Gadkari, among others.[16]
The offices ofThe Quint and Raghav Bahl's residence were raided by theIncome Tax Department of India in October 2018 in connection to an alleged case of tax evasion, the raid was termed as a survey by the Income Tax officers.[17][18][19] Raghav Bahl released a statement which termed the raid as an attack on journalistic freedom while appealing to the autonomousEditors Guild of India to backThe Quint such that a precedent is set against repetition of a similar exercise on any journalistic entity.[20][21] The Editors Guild of India raised concerns that while the department was within its rights to carry out inquiries, the conduct of such exercises should not be akin tointimidation tactics.[22][23]
In January 2019,The Quint introducedsubscriptions for advertisement free delivery of its content and in July, it also introduced a premium membership initiative for access towebinars for members.[14] Raghav Bahl completed his investment in the news publisher over the course of the years, amounting to $21.5 million from the capital gained following the sale of Network18.[24]
In May 2020,The Quint was acquired by Gaurav Mercantiles through which it was listed on theBombay Stock Exchange. The acquisition involved all assets of Quintillion Media excludingBloombergQuint.[2] The transaction of Quintillion Media's assets to Gaurav Mercantiles was made on a related party basis due to the Bahl and Kapur's stake in both the companies and increased theborrowing base of Gaurav Mercantiles in accordance with theCompanies Act 2013.[25] Gaurav Mercantiles was earlier aship breaking and trading firm which had not made any revenue since March 2018; ergo it entered into adebt-for-equity swap agreement in which Bahl and Kapur collectively acquired 66.42% of the company's stakes whileHaldiram Snacks Pvt Ltd and the investment bank Elara Capital acquired 17-18% and 10% stake respectively.[26][27][28] Mohan Lal Jain, the former chairman of Gaurav Mercantiles retained 4.99% stake in the company.[2] In September 2020, Gaurav Mercantiles was renamed to Quint Digital Media Limited.[27][1]
In terms of editorial content,The Quint is focused on educational and explanatory journalism. The primary mode of presentation is throughnewsletters,multimedia,documentary series,live video broadcasts,graphic journalism andpodcasts.[14] The site has published a range of influential stories on topics concerningsexual harassment,freedom of speech andHindu nationalism.[29] According toReporters Without Borders, the site differs from other traditional news outlets in its interpretations of news with dedicated sections such as Documentaries and Explainers.[11] The portal operatesQuintLab which is described as an "innovation wing" of the publication and features an interface of various multimedia storytelling formats.[14] The co-founder and CEO ofThe Quint,Ritu Kapur states that the publication's experimentation is concerted more towards the form and style of presentation that can be developed in adigital environment rather than the professional craft of journalism itself.[29]
In order to combatdisinformation, the publication also operatesWebQoof, a fact-checking initiative certified by theInternational Fact-Checking Network.[15] The fact-checking unit runs as apublic service and encourages user submissions of claims for verification. Throughaudience participation, it gains access to hundreds of unverified claims and uses resource intensive techniques of employing journalists to fact-check claims and debunk hoaxes.[14][30]The Quint is in particular involved in combating disinformation on the messenger appWhatsApp which has been noted to have become a difficult-to-penetrate viral distribution network afflicted by disinformation in India.[31] According toRitu Kapur, the co-founder of the publication, theWebQoof initiative has a reassuringly high consumption which goes against the presumptions of apost-truth world.[30] The publication had also entered into a partnership withBBC News for the co-production of an educational video series "Swacch Digital India" to highlight the importance of fact-checking to its viewers.[14]
The portal has also been noted for itsadvocacy journalism ongender related issues.[14] In 2018, the "TalkingStalking" project onQuintLab was awarded gold in the "Best Innovation to Engage Youth Audiences" category by theWorld Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.[32] The project was the first gender themed editorial initiative launched by the publication.[14] Later, with funding fromFacebook Inc, it launched "Me, The Change" editorial campaign focusing on stories of notable women alongside live events to encourage young women to become first time voters and elicit changes in legislation.[33][14] As a result of the campaign, theDelhi Legislative Assembly passed a resolution in support of drafting a bill for making stalking, a non-bailable offence; the publication had previously held a feature event atOxford Bookstore,New Delhi to raise support for the Stalking Bill.[14] In 2019, the "Me, The Change" campaign received the Digipub World Award for "Best Brand Partnership".[34][14]
The news publication operates through threedigital platforms;[25] theEnglish language editionThe Quint, theHindi language editionThe Quint Hindi and the healthcare news microsite calledFIT.[2] According toRaghav Bahl, co-founder ofThe Quint, the site's distinctive feature is its broad spectrum of coverage which "includespolicy, politics, sports, business, food, entertainment and everything else" extending beyond the "narrow focus" of other news outlets.[29] It has also been described byReporters Without Borders as the first mobile based news service;[11] the content ofThe Quint is primarily emphasized towards distribution through social media and mobile devices.[29] Since December 2015, the publication has also been in a collaboration withFacebook, Inc. on itsInstant Articles project and has presence on the social media platforms ofFacebook,Twitter,Instagram andYouTube.[29][14]
A story published in theColumbia Journalism Review in late 2016 identifiedThe Quint as one of several independent and recently founded internet-based media platforms – a group that also includedNewslaundry,Scroll.in,The News Minute,The Wire andScoopWhoop – that were attempting to challenge the dominance of India's traditional print and television news companies and their online offshoots.[35]The Quint has also been certified by thePoynter Institute's International Fact-Checking Network for its reporting inWebQoof, its in-housefact-checking division.[36][37][38] The publication has received recognition through a number of prestigious awards for itspublic interest journalism.[14]
In a report of theReuters Institute for the Study of Journalism,The Quint was compared with theFilipino news publicationRappler and theSouth African online newspaperDaily Maverick, and described as digital-born commercial news publishers engaged in producing critical independent journalism in destabilising democracies. According to the report,The Quint has faced extreme external pressure in the form of politically motivated attacks onmedia freedom, orchestrated digitaldisinformation campaigns and significantonline harassment against its journalists; it was noted that online harassment was particularly severe againstwomen journalists, often including threats of violence ranging fromsexual assault to rape and murder.[14]
In February 2017,The Quint published a sting video focused on how theArmy'sjawans were being deployed assahayaks and performed a variety of menial tasks for officers;[39] the profilednaik committed suicide a week afterwards[40] in fear of an impendingcourt-martial.[41] The Army subsequently booked theQuint reporter for abetting his suicide, and violating theOfficial Secrets Act of India by trespassing into a prohibited area.[42][43][44] Media critics have since dubbed the sting-operation as "overzealous journalism" with a host of ethical issues.[45][39] In 2019,Bombay High Court quashed all charges againstThe Quint noting the Army to be vindictive.[40]
Kulbhushan Jadhav is an Indian national who was arrested inPakistan on charges of terrorism and spying for theResearch and Analysis Wing (RAW) – India's external intelligence agency.[46] After the arrest, on 5 January 2018,The Quint published a story by the journalist Chandan Nandy which claimed that Jadhav was being used to collect intelligence for India and that two former chiefs of the Research and Analysis Wing had allegedly stated that they were against the recruitment of Jadhav as a spy.[47]The Hindu'sFrontline magazine also published a story with a similar claim.[48][49] The stories were picked up by Pakistani media agencies as apparent confirmation of Jadhav's affiliation.[50][51][52] It drew criticism in India; the media watchdogNewslaundry raised questions on howThe Quint could have been privy to such information.[53] The publication retracted the story on 7 January stating that the factual accuracy of the article required rechecking.[47][53] The story was later quoted by Pakistan in a relatedInternational Court of Justice case.[54][55]
On 27 March 2020, during theCOVID-19 pandemic in India,The Quint published an article which reported that India was in stage-3 transmission (community transmission). The government'sPress Information Bureau denied the occurrence of community transmission and labeled the story as "misleading".The Times of India published a "fact-check" affirming the PIB statement and clarifying that the person being quoted did not have medical qualifications but had aPhD inQuality management.[56][57] However, medical professionals also questioned the basis of the government's continued denial with some asserting that community transmission had already begun in March.[58][59] The report published byThe Quint had quoted Girdhar Gyani, the head of theNGO, Association of Healthcare Providers.[60] Later the publication updated the article without any retractions to include information about Girdhar Gyani having been appointed as the convener of a COVID-19 hospital task force.[61] As of 12 June, theMinistry of Health continued to deny any occurrence of community transfer in contradiction to opinions of independent medical experts.[62]
The Quint website received a monthly unique readership of approximately 16 million as of March 2019. According toGoogle Analytics, nearly 69% of the readership was estimated to be between the ages of 18 and 34. In addition, the website had a subscriber base of over 175,000 readers onWhatsApp. The combined monthly exposure of unique users through all internet assets ofThe Quint was estimated to be 100 million. Per February 2019 data ofCrowdTangle, the publication was the largest digital only news publisher onFacebook.[4][better source needed]
PerComScore data, the monthly unique readership of website was 24.8 million as of August 2019.[29]