Have you ever seen an advertisement on the first page published by the management of any daily newspaper saying that the newspaper is not for sale? Using the most important place for news (which is for respectable readers), the owners of The Assam Tribune published an advertisement on 26 May 2026 insisting that this prestigious daily newspaper is not for sale. But the question arises why the current management of Assam Tribune decide to take such an unusual step? Why didn't they just limit themselves to a small explanation while denying some of the rumors spreading on social media? Should this be considered an 'overreaction' to what was published in the alternative media, or was the management actually trying to hide something very important?
In a strongly worded ad that carried this strong line—'The Assam Tribune is not for sale'—it was claimed that the widespread speculation about the newspaper's alleged sale on social media is completely baseless. The advertisement said, "For the last 88 glorious years, 'The Assam Tribune' has stood as an independent, reliable and responsible institution, dedicated to serving the nation and the people with integrity, courage, and journalistic excellence." The advertisement also added that management reserves the right to take appropriate legal action against any person, group or organization found involved in creating, spreading, or promoting such baseless and defamatory content.
The issue gained further momentum when a rumor spread on social media in the fourth week of May 2026 that the prestigious newspaper had already been sold to industrialist Gautam Adani (Chairman of the Adani Group) for around Rs 421 crore. Soon many well-known celebrities also took this matter forward. They made various claims, such as the management has not been able to pay the employees of Assam Tribune regularly for a long time, and more than 75 ex-employees of Tribune Media House are still not paid their legal dues, due to which they had to approach the court. However, most of the people who reacted on social media expressed their sorrow and concern over the deteriorating financial situation of this trusted newspaper.
This oldest media group in Northeast India is facing a financial crisis—this is confirmed by the official statements of the Assam Tribune Employees Union. In its statements, the union alleged a delay in the payment of regular salary and other post-retirement dues. The union held several demonstrations in the office premises and also addressed a press conference, claiming that the Information and Public Relations Department of the Assam government owed a huge amount of money (advertisement revenue). The management also reiterated that they need those outstanding lakhs of rupees urgently.
Amidst all these troubling developments, the management handed over the responsibility of one of its associate publications, 'Dainik Assam' to the owner of a different media house. The new owner took over the leadership of this Assamese daily on 17 September 2025, refusing to take responsibility for more than 75 employees (who were associated with 'Dainik Assam'). The old management should have paid all the dues of the fired employees as soon as possible, but it did not happen. Eventually, they approached the court for legal help, and according to reports, the court has recently directed the management to pay the dues of those employees.
This media house, founded in 1939 by Assam entrepreneur 'Radha Govinda Barua' and publishing several newspapers from Guwahati, is known in the region as an honest news publication. It may be recalled that in 2010 Tribune House implemented the recommendations of the 'Majithia Pay Board' for the first time in the country. Just before 'Dainik Assam' was abdicated, the current group of owners also quietly liquidated their seven-decade-old tabloid 'Assam Bani'. This mainstream weekly newspaper was merged with 'Dainik Assam' as a Sunday supplement. However, the buyer did not take ownership of this weekly, and thus it faced an unwanted and unfortunate end. 'Assam Bani' was last published as a supplement on 12 September 2025, but the Tribune management did not issue any statement on its closure.
The Tribune Media Group has observed and reported on various important socio-political developments in Assam—such as the school education movement, the anti-encroachment movement, the sudden rise of separatist militancy, general social unrest, the rise of regional politics, etc.—and it has done so with its commitment to the indigenous population. Right after the Kovid-19 pandemic, all newspapers in Assam faced an existential crisis due to a sharp decline in circulation and revenue.
Media observers say that Tribune House has historically maintained its credibility in the dissemination of information, editorials and articles, but in recent years, these principles have been largely compromised. The Assam Tribune extensively covered the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act movement in 2019, and gave considerable space to public protests against the central government's initiative, which was aimed at providing political support to persecuted Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Christian families from Muslim-majority Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The coverage fueled weeks of unrest in Assam's Brahmaputra Valley, where the narrative emerged that the new citizenship law would undermine the Assam Accord, which ended the 1985 agitation against foreigners.
Also, the people of Assam remember a series of biased media reports prepared for the Assam Tribune on the eve of the Guwahati Press Club elections six years ago. Those less credible reports were full of personal attacks on the then secretary of the Press Club, which ultimately put the hard-earned reputation of this newspaper at stake.
Even though the current financial condition of Tribune Media House is very bad, this crisis is not caused only by Kovid-19; Rather, the habit of arbitrarily exercising editorial freedom without accountability by some unscrupulous news-desk staff made the situation even worse. As a matter of fact, those media professionals who were spreading unrest within the institute while taking advantage of all the facilities, created huge problems—and all the while the management remained a silent spectator because only they knew better.
