Outlet profile

The Federal

Indian center-left / liberal

Owned byNew Generation Media Corporation Private Limited, a Chennai-based media company that also owns the Puthiya Thalaimurai Tamil-language TV channel and magazine

FundingPrimarily digital advertising revenue; no subscription paywall. Part of a larger media group; specific investor or grant details are not publicly disclosed.

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

The Federal was founded in March 2019 in Chennai as the first English-language news outlet of New Generation Media Corporation Private Limited, a company incorporated in 2006 that had already built a significant Tamil-language media presence through Puthiya Thalaimurai magazine (launched 2009) and Puthiya Thalaimurai TV (launched 2011). The Federal was positioned to fill a gap in coverage by looking at India from the vantage point of its states, particularly southern India, rather than from Delhi-centric national media frameworks. Editor-in-Chief S. Srinivasan has guided the publication since its early days. The outlet grew steadily and by October 2024 reported 10 million page views per month. It has expanded beyond English with regional editions in Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi, the Hindi edition operating under the name The Federal Desh from Delhi. The Federal is funded primarily through digital advertising, as is the norm in Indian online news. It operates in a difficult press-freedom environment: Reporters Without Borders ranked India 157th out of 180 countries in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index, citing harassment of journalists and pro-government concentration of media ownership. Against that backdrop, The Federal has maintained a reputation as a critically independent outlet, covering governance, civil liberties, and minority rights in ways that distinguish it from many outlets in the BJP-aligned media ecosystem.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-07-31; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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