IMAGE: REST OF WORLD
JOURNALISM HAS a fresh disease. Readers get their news through platforms that keep them the hell away from the publishers who actually produce it. Advertisers chase the audience. Search engines spit out answers without sending traffic to the original reporting. Even a newsroom stuffed with tens of millions of dollars can get screwed.
Rest of World, founded in 2020 to cover tech beyond Silicon Valley, is the latest corpse-in-waiting. Its leadership said on October 25th it was seeking a new institutional home, with standalone publication due to die in January 2027 if no suitable arrangement emerges. Sophie Schmidt, founder and chief sugar daddy, had pledged $60m. Six years later, its future stinks. Semafor reported that collapsing search and social-media traffic had gutted its reach.
The publication produced award-winning journalism and reported from across the globe. Money bought it time to build a newsroom, hire reporters and chase stories Western media ignored. It could never insulate the business from how people discover news. A big donation can finance journalism: it cannot guarantee a lasting audience.
Anup Kaphle knows this mess intimately. He helped launch Rest of World and served as editor-in-chief until stepping down in March 2026. He returned to Nepal to become group editorial director of Kantipur Media Group, taking charge of its newspapers, television and radio. His appointment was sold as a rescue mission for one of Nepal’s biggest media outfits as it stumbles from print to digital.
The timing makes his new job a nightmare. Kantipur has far deeper roots in Nepal than Rest of World ever had globally: yet its business is rotting. Revenue crashed 70% over the decade, according to The Kathmandu Post. Journalists have reported salary delays. Rising printing and distribution costs have piled pressure on a model built around print advertising.
Kaphle has started begging readers to carry more of the load. In August Kantipur jacked up its newspaper cover price to Rs20 and announced a bigger push on reader funding. The logic is sound: advertising alone can no longer pay for serious reporting. The ugly question is how many readers will cough up enough to keep the lights on.
The comparison has limits. Kaphle left Rest of World months before its possible closure, and its financial predicament is no proof of his editorial failure. Kantipur also has assets the American nonprofit lacked: a recognised brand, a large domestic audience and several established platforms. Yet those advantages come with legacy costs and habits that are a bitch to change.
The lesson is harsher than a call for better journalism. Rest of World had a clear mission, recognised work and exceptional financial backing. Those ingredients still failed to guarantee survival. Kantipur has a bigger institutional footprint, but its recovery depends on turning loyal readers into reliable revenue while rebuilding trust and adapting distribution.
For Kaphle, the task is to prove a legacy newsroom can become a sustainable business before its decline becomes irreversible. If a $60m pledge could not secure Rest of World’s future as an independent publication, Kantipur will need more than editorial talent and a new cover price. It will need readers willing to pay for journalism, repeatedly. ■
