The Hoot stopped operating as a daily news site in 2018 because its founders could not find senior, full-time editorial leaders or a partner to raise money for daily operations. Founding editor Sevanti Ninan said the publication still had value in its longer, researched pieces, and she proposed turning its archive into a searchable media research resource. The Media Foundation, which runs the site, later said The Hoot ceased operation after 18 years and that its 2001–2018 articles are archived at Ashoka University.
What The Hoot was
The Hoot began in March 2001 as a media-watch publication. Scroll described it in March 2018 as India’s first media watchdog. Its work examined how newsrooms made decisions, who owned media companies, how editorial hierarchies were arranged, how advertisers exerted influence, where self-censorship appeared, and where political bias crept in. The premise was simple: the media should be subjected to the same scrutiny that journalists routinely apply to other institutions.
Why daily publishing stopped
In March 2018, Ninan told contributors that the daily operation was no longer workable. Her explanation had three parts.
- Leadership: The Hoot could not find seasoned, senior journalists willing to commit full time to running a daily site.
- Fundraising: The Media Foundation, which publishes The Hoot, could not find a partner to help raise the money a daily operation requires.
- Competition on breaking stories: Better-resourced publications were able to cover breaking media news faster than a small, independent team could.
In her interview with Scroll, Ninan put the decision this way: “It is no longer viable as a daily media news site because we (The Media Foundation, which runs it) have not been able to find seasoned and senior people willing to helm it on a full-time basis.” She also said, “The Hoot needed to change course because of the circumstances it finds itself in.”
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Newslaundry reported on the same problem a few days later, on March 29, 2018, describing the difficulty of finding journalists or academics willing to take on a project that required daily editorial oversight and fundraising. Taken together, the two interviews point to a resourcing problem rather than a single event or a rejection of media-watch journalism.
Where Ninan saw the lasting value
The distinction Ninan drew is the core of the story. Breaking-news coverage of the media was a field where larger outlets had the edge. Longer, researched documentation was different. She argued that mainstream publications were not doing that kind of sustained documentation and critique, so the work still had a purpose.
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| Publishing function | Who had the advantage in 2018, per Ninan | Fit for The Hoot after the change |
|---|---|---|
| Breaking media news | Better-resourced publications | Dropped as a daily operation |
| Longitudinal research and documentation | The Hoot, because mainstream outlets were not doing the same sustained work | Kept as the central purpose |
What Ninan proposed instead
Ninan’s plan, stated in 2018, was to redesign the site so that one or two current reports sat at the top of the page while the research, analysis and documentation built up since 2001 received much more prominence. She wanted readers to be able to search across subjects. The audiences she named were journalists, students, teachers, civil-society groups, lawyers concerned with free speech, and media researchers.
She listed specific resources she had in mind: a media-ownership database, annual free-speech reports, financial profiles of media houses, and a planned database of media judgments. She described the longer-term goal this way: “I guess what I have in mind is that The Hoot should become an online media research resource in the absence of an existing media research centre.” She also suggested that university partnerships could help sustain such a resource.
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These were proposals made in 2018. The sources do not confirm that the database features, the free-speech reports or the university partnership were completed, so none should be treated as an established feature of the site.
What happened to the archive
The Media Foundation’s publications page says The Hoot ceased operation after 18 years. It also says that articles published between 2001 and 2018 are archived with the Archives of Contemporary India Project at Ashoka University. The page gives the archive access point as asu.thehoot.org. The publisher’s page does not state when the cessation took effect, so the date of the final operational change is not established by that account.
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For readers, this means the site should be treated as an archive of past reporting and analysis, not as a live daily news source. Someone looking for current media coverage will need other outlets.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is and is not established
- Established: The Hoot began in 2001, Ninan said in 2018 that daily publishing was no longer viable, and the Media Foundation later described the site as having ceased operation with its 2001–2018 articles archived at Ashoka University.
- Not established: any measured effect of the change on readership, funding or the wider Indian media sector. The sources do not quantify either.
- Not established: whether Ninan’s proposed database and research features were built as described.
Anyone citing these events should attribute the reasons to Ninan’s 2018 interviews, and the post-transition status to the Media Foundation’s own account.
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