The Pioneer

The Pioneer was founded in 1865 during the British Raj by an Englishman George Allen. The paper which initially strongly supported the Imperial rule of India once employed a young Winston Churchill as its war correspondent during the second Boer War. Rudyard Kipling, the famous author of The Jungle Book was employed as an Assistant Editor of the newspaper between November 1887 and March 1889.
In the recent past, this small, independent newspaper fell on bad times as large conglomerates began to dominate the media in India. However, in 1996, Chandan Mitra, one of India's top journalists took over as Editor of the newspaper. In 1998, as the paper faced serious financial difficulties, he bought the newspaper out and through the persistence of a small but dedicated team of journalists and managers managed to keep it afloat during those troubled times.
The newspaper survived, becoming one of the only independent national newspapers thanks to the support of a small but growing population of dedicated readers.