Anto Joseph takes over as Editor of The Financial Standard, TNIE’s upcoming business daily

Anto Joseph, Resident Editor of The New Indian Express (Tamil Nadu), has stepped down from his role to lead the group’s upcoming business daily, The Financial Standard, marking his return to financial journalism after more than five years.

The new business daily is expected to launch in November and will be based in Kochi. The paper is positioned as a national financial daily focused on India’s evolving growth corridors, including manufacturing, logistics, innovation, family-owned businesses and emerging regional markets.

Joseph spent over five years leading TNIE’s Tamil Nadu editorial operations. His appointment brings extensive experience across some of India’s leading financial and general newsrooms at a time when the business newspaper segment is seeing fresh interest, particularly in South India.

Joseph worked at The Economic Times for more than a decade, serving as Editor–Infrastructure. He subsequently spent over five years at DNA, rising from Associate Editor to Managing Editor-Business. He earlier worked for around six years as Resident Editor, Mumbai, and Associate Editor at Financial Chronicle. He also worked as a stringer for The Guardian in London under a British Chevening scholarship and has contributed to publications including Fortune, Newslaundry, Mint, Money9 and Caravan.

The launch will add another player to India’s business newspaper market, which has seen few new national entrants since Mint launched in 2007 and Financial Chronicle in 2008. Based out of Kochi, The Financial Standard is expected to tap into the changing geography of India’s economic growth beyond the traditional financial centres.
Positioning

The Financial Standard is likely to be positioned as a premium publication, with coverage spanning corporate India, public policy, capital markets, commodities and the broader business ecosystem, with an emphasis on original reporting and analysis, according to the group.

Lakshmi Menon, CEO, The New Indian Express Group, told e4m that the paper would focus on the changing nature of India’s economic growth.

“Over the past two decades, India’s growth story has evolved well beyond a handful of established metropolitan centres. It is increasingly being shaped by entrepreneurs in emerging cities, manufacturers in industrial clusters, expanding consumer markets, digital businesses reaching every district, and ambitious enterprises scaling from across the country. We see a significant opportunity to build a financial daily that reflects this changing economic landscape.”

“Our editorial focus begins where much of India’s next decade of growth is being built. We intend to report on the businesses, industries, policies and people driving economic transformation across the country’s expanding growth corridors—from manufacturing hubs and logistics networks to innovation ecosystems, family-owned enterprises, regional champions and high-growth cities,” Menon added.

She said the publication would not overlook established financial centres, but would seek to connect them with the wider economic landscape.

“The established financial centres will, of course, remain integral to our coverage. But they are part of a much larger story. Our journalism will connect local enterprise with national markets, regional developments with macroeconomic trends, and emerging businesses with global opportunities. It will follow capital, talent, technology and ambition wherever they are creating economic value.”

The launch comes as publishers continue to recalibrate their print strategies amid changing reader habits and rising production costs. By investing in a dedicated business daily, the group is betting on continued demand for specialised business journalism, particularly among readers seeking original reporting, depth and analysis.

Headquartered in Chennai, The New Indian Express Group traces its origins to The Indian Express, founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu and later acquired by Ramnath Goenka.

Following the 1999 restructuring of the Express Group, the southern editions became part of The New Indian Express Group, while the northern editions continued under The Indian Express. Today, the group publishes over 40 editions of The New Indian Express, along with The Sunday Express, The Morning Standard, The Sunday Standard and Tamil daily Dinamani.