We are staying away from the ‘Bigg Boss-ification' of news: Sanket Upadhyay

Veteran journalist and senior news anchor Sanket Upadhyay, in collaboration with fellow journalists Sunil Saini and Saurabh Shukla, launched The Red Mike, a digital media platform that has quickly amassed over 700,000 subscribers.

Positioned as a movement to revive authentic journalism, The Red Mike aims to bridge the gap left by traditional media by focusing on factual, meaningful content that resonates with the public.

In an exclusive interview, Upadhyay shared insights into the motivations and challenges behind creating The Red Mike, the platform's content strategy, and the team’s vision to rebuild trust in journalism. 

What inspired you to launch this platform?

An important reason behind the start of this platform was the freedom to speak. There was a time when it was difficult to reach out to the people without big channels, but today it is not so. As journalists, my team and I felt that we should freely share our voices. The audience also wanted us to share our voices on a different platform. So, we launched The Red Mike and it has been a wonderful journey. 

Why the name The Red Mike?

There was a lot of thought in choosing the name. We wanted to name our platform simple and meaningful. The colour red is important in our lives - it symbolises revolution, life, love, and energy. The name stood out from the crowd and had a depth to it. Another thing related to this was that people wondered if it was inspired by any ideology, but for us the name reflected the broader meaning of the colour red. 

What kind of challenges did you face while launching this new platform?

The biggest challenge was the battle of 'izzat vs EMI'. As a middle-class person, there is always a worry about how to fulfill your financial responsibilities after leaving the job. But when we had the confidence that we can do it, then we took this decision. Apart from this, funding was also a big challenge, because we do not just sit in a studio and do programs, but also focus on reporting. But, we managed our expenses carefully and understood that if there is good intention, then a way out of the difficulty is found." 

It was a challenging decision. Earlier we were a part of some other brand, but now we are trying to create a brand ourselves. We are now known as The Red Mike and this is our biggest success. I would also like to share a funny anecdote, 'Once a taxi driver recognized me and said that you have joined The Red Mike. He was assuming that The Red Mike is a big channel and I was very happy that people have started recognizing our brand. 

How would you define your editorial approach?

The selection of topics is based on our years of experience in journalism. Our team has journalists from three generations and our views sometimes differ, but this is what brings diversity to our news. We focus on real problems and concerns of the public, not just on political drama. For example, we raised issues that directly affect people's lives, like the problem of green lines on mobile screens, which tries to solve people's everyday problems. 

We have tried to preserve this trust and give correct and true news to the audience. The Red Mike  is not just a YouTube channel, but a movement that is trying to bring back true journalism. We are not just in the race of popularity, but believe in giving fact-based, correct and meaningful news. Our audience also understands this and that is why we are getting their continuous support." 

Brand value is built on trust. We believe that trust is the most important thing in journalism. Our audience trusts us and this helps us achieve our goals. We give priority to true and meaningful news by staying away from the "Bigg Boss-ification" of the media. We do not run after algorithms, but present news that connects with the hearts of the public. This is our only 'secret'. 

What was it like transitioning from pure journalism to also managing the entrepreneurial side of things with The Red Mike? 

This was a big change for us, because along with journalism, we have now started understanding entrepreneurship in this field. Doing journalism is a challenging task, especially when you have to handle this business as well. A special experience was our first event ‘The Red Mike with Akhilesh Yadav’, in which we established a dialogue with Akhilesh Yadav. This was our first event and we had a very good experience. It gave us more confidence. 

What are the main challenges to upholding impartiality and transparency in the media, particularly on digital platforms? 

First of all, the concept of impartiality is very important, but it is important to understand it in the sense of complete impartiality. I believe that as long as we are alive, it is not possible to be completely neutral, because every person has his own ideology. Our audience also expects a point of view from us, but it is important that this point of view is based on facts.

The problem in today's media arises when people reach a conclusion in advance and then look for facts to prove their conclusion. Our effort is that whatever point of view is, it should be based on facts and even if we make a mistake, we do not hesitate to correct it. 

In the long run, the audience sees your intention. Your truthfulness and transparency build trust with the audience. We should also tell our audience the source of information. This transparency increases the trust of the audience towards you. If we ignore the principles of traditional media, it will weaken our faith.