Why India’s Vikatan Group is betting on audio and AI

Srinivasan B, Managing Director of Vikatan Group, has spent over three decades steering one of India's oldest media houses through a series of big shifts - from print to digital, television, YouTube, events, and now AI.

Founded in 1926 as a magazine brand, Vikatan now operates across platforms. Its Tamil-language titles include Ananda Vikatan, Junior Vikatan, Aval Vikatan, Sakthi Vikatan, and Pasumai Vikatan, covering politics, cinema, women's interests, spirituality, and agriculture.

Missing the satellite TV boom in the 1990s became a turning point for Vikatan. It prompted a lasting shift in mindset towards anticipating and adapting to emerging trends, Srinivasan told the audience at the Digital Media India conference in Chennai.

Having missed a major media wave, the organisation became more proactive in embracing digital opportunities.

Vikatan's introduction of a paywall

Vikatan expanded into content production, digital platforms, and later introduced a paywall.

The company launched Vikatan.com in 1997, but it came close to shutting down due to a lack of advertising revenue. The management decided to experiment with a paid model.

When the paywall was introduced in 2005, the website became profitable "within 100 days".

Around the same time, the team observed that others were uploading Vikatan's television serials to YouTube and receiving significant engagement. In response, Vikatan launched its own channel, which now generates steady revenue from its archive of content developed over the past 25 years.

"Much of what we've done has come from accidents, curiosity, fear, and a need to stay relevant. Our paranoia about becoming irrelevant probably drove many of our changes," Srinivasan said.

100,000 monthly users for audio articles

In 2024, Vikatan launched Vikatan Play, an AI-powered voice product using Eleven Labs.

"We've created a single voice model and are now able to deliver an audio version of Ananda Vikatan within 15 minutes of publishing," Srinivasan said.

The AI-enabled audio initiative showed impact early on. Within two weeks, Vikatan received feedback from the president of an association for the visually challenged, who noted that the new AI-powered version made the content more accessible and easier to follow.

That response became the foundation for further development. The organisation began expanding the feature to cover all its magazines and introduced audiobooks. By the end of the month, the platform was expected to reach around 100,000 monthly active users and 5 million minutes of audio consumed.

The team is now preparing to monetise the product through subscriptions, pay-per-listen, or ad-supported models.

"What excites me is that while people may not find time to read, they're willing to listen. And that opens up new audience time we couldn't tap before," he said.

The audio platform also helps reconnect with Tamil-speaking audiences who are no longer fluent readers of the script but continue to speak and understand the language. By offering spoken content, Vikatan aims to reach these users and expand its audience base.

80 percent future-ready in digital and AI

To manage its digital shift, Vikatan brought in an international consultancy in 2011. "They gave me what they call the Bible - a 400-page book. But the last page said: none of this works without active collaboration."

Change took time - around four years. "At one town hall, I said, 'If you don't embrace digital, you will become unemployable.' That was the ultimatum," Srinivasan said.

"We are about 80 percent future ready when it comes to digital and AI. But by the time we get there, technology has already moved ahead. Still, we are more cohesive now, and more forgiving."

55 percent revenue comes from readers

Srinivasan said he still spends most of his time on print, even though it's no longer a growing business. "We're defending territory at a cost that doesn't seem to be worth defending. But that's where bulk of my time goes," he said.

Unlike most newspapers, Vikatan still earns most of its revenue from readers - about 55 percent. Advertising brings in 35-40 percent and 5 percent comes from syndication and other sources.

But none of that match the scale of events. "Events are our bread, butter, jam, and more. They keep the print business afloat," he said.

Still, events depend on the strength of the brand. "There's no second opinion. Our events are successful only because of the brand they stand on. But the brand isn't independently profitable without the events. It's a yin and yang - they work together," he added.

Aultrin Vijay

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