In a world where information is “abundant, easily replicated, and increasingly detached from habit,” news publishers are pressed to redefine where their value lies.

During this week’s INMA South Asia Webinar, Puneet Kukreja, business head of The Economic Times Digital and Times Internet, explained how the 63‑year‑old Economic Times has shifted from a traditional news destination to what Kukreja calls a “multi‑product operating system for the Indian business professional.”

That shift, he explained, is more than a cosmetic makeover; it required rethinking value, relevance, and the role a news organisation can play in a reader’s daily life.

The Economic Times’ transformation began about two years ago with the realisation that the 15‑minute news habit was fragmenting.

“Readers are resorting to other means to consume news, to understand content deeply,” Kukreja said, noting audiences now are getting information from influencers on social media channels. “So they were not as loyal to us. Our edge around breaking news or the story-behind-the-story was taken away by other platforms.”

Instead of waiting for more disruption, the company decide to create reasons for audiences to visit the site. The goal, he said, was to “create FOMO in the mind of our [audience] if the person does not come to us at least three to four times in a week.”

To do that, ET set out to build a system rich with tools that matter to users’ careers, money, kids, and health.

This repositioning — from “stay informed” to “stay informed and invest better,” and now to “take action and improve your life” — created what Kukreja called the shift from a news destination to an operating system.

This shift is tied directly to revenue: “In the last year,” Kukreja said, “the revenue line with maximum growth potential is actually transactions.”

Subscriptions remain important, but the company now defines reader revenue in two legs: subscriptions and transactions. The latter — master classes, tools, programmes, and services — has become the fastest‑growing part of the business.

4 pillars: career, money, kids, health

After conducting “deep user research,” ET identified four areas where business professionals consistently feel anxiety and seek guidance: career, money, kids, and health. These pillars now anchor the company’s product strategy.

Career: As AI reshapes industries, professionals are asking, “Am I still relevant?” ET launched AI‑readiness programs, masterclasses, and tools to help users understand how AI affects their roles and industries. “They need a credible source to understand how it is impacting different job functions and different industries,” Kukreja said.

Money: Financial freedom remains a universal aspiration. ET expanded its market products, investing tools, and masterclasses on fundamental investing, mutual funds, and alternative assets. These offerings have strong product‑market fit and high monetisation potential.

Kids: Many ET readers have children aged 10-20, and the research showed more than half worry about their future. ET launched programmes on topics such as AI literacy and personality development for kids, creating an unexpected but successful extension of the brand.

Health: This category initially faced resistance from ET veterans who wondered why a business publication would talk about health, Kukreja said. But it plays a role in business success, and ET introduced live wellness coaching, daily paid yoga sessions and even organised a marathon with 17,000 paid participants. “We got a phenomenal response,” Kukreja said.

Solving problems vs. chasing pageviews

One significant — and perhaps shocking — shift at ET Digital is the abandonment of traffic as a core metric. “We no longer chase pageviews,” Kukreja said. “ARPU is the only metric.”

Instead of funnels that lose users at every stage, ET flipped the funnel to create a value pyramid where users move upward — from free readers to subscribers, to learners, to investors, to community members. Each step represents deeper engagement and higher willingness to pay.

This approach is essential because ET expects traffic to decline by more than half in the next three years. The company is preparing for that loss by building products to increase reader revenue: “Advertising alone can no longer sustain us,” he said, adding that reader revenue is projected to exceed 60% of total revenue in the next couple of years.

While many publishers frame AI as a threat, ET Digital treats it as a multiplier. “AI is our friend,” Kukreja said. The company’s focus was not on just building content or rewriting content or summarising content with AI: “The intent was to learn AI first, build something that the competition is offering to our readers, and create better alternatives,” he said.

Internally, teams are encouraged to “experiment faster, fail faster, and learn faster.” And AI tools are being used to create products, improve existing products, and improve monetisation.

“Without AI, this transition would not have been possible,” Kukreja acknowledged.

What they got wrong

As well as it’s working now, Kukreja said there were “huge failures” in the first six months. “We made a lot of errors,” he said, noting three major mistakes:

1. Chasing traffic instead of trust. They initially targeted mass audiences instead of loyal users willing to pay.
2. Launching one‑off events instead of building engines. Early programmes looked like ads for third‑party partners, not native ET experiences.
3. Assuming brand strength was enough. They underestimated competitors and failed to differentiate products on value or price.

Correcting these missteps — especially building an in‑house AI research team and owning the curriculum — was essential to the turnaround.

3 principles worth stealing

Kukreja closed by reminding publishers to keep moving forward and continue building trust with their audiences. Strong journalism may not always be profitable, but it is the foundation of trust — and trust is the new currency.

1. Go deeper, not wider. Trust is undermonetised; the more trust you build, the better your ROI.
2. Build engines, not events. “Always think about a plan which a reader can understand,” he advised.
3. Embrace AI as a friend. The goal is not to fight AI but to use it to create more value and stay relevant.

He urged publishers to stop worrying about things beyond their control and focus on what they can control. That means determining where they can create more value: “The future of media is not about how many people read you,” he said. “It’s how many people can’t imagine their day without you.”

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