Shalabh Upadhyay is the founder, CEO, and Editor-in-Chief at NEWJ. Drawing inspiration from the mantra of "Stories of India, Stories for India, Stories by India", Shalabh’s work has carved a unique niche in digital filmmaking and storytelling in India. Under his leadership, NEWJ has grown into, and one of the country's pioneering hubs of visual storytelling through diversified video content - short forms, medium forms, mini-series, docu-series explainers. Shalabh has also been awarded the Mangalam Swaminathan Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2021.
In a short span of the past four years, NEWJ has published over 100,000 video stories across its 13 language verticals, aggregating 27 billion views, over a billion engagements, and creating an audience of over 38+ million across 10+ social platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Public to name a few. During this timeframe, NEWJ has leapfrogged into the Top 25 Global Digital First Publishers in the world in video. In the process, NEWJ has also been honored with the 'Best Start-Up of the Year' Award at the MSME India Business, 'Online Startup Of The Year' by Entrepreneur India, and several other awards for its stories and overall reportage.
Shalabh is a Columbia Journalism School Graduate with an extensive career spanning in Journalism and Digital Storytelling in the US and Canada, prior to founding NEWJ. He also served as the former India Lead for NowThis and assumed leadership roles at The Players’ Tribune and Buytopia (Canada). At the same time, he remains passionate about politics, policy, tech, and data.
Research Interests
Data & Technology, Journalism, Digital Media, Tech Innovation
- Master of Science (MS), Journalism - Columbia University Graduate School Of Journalism
- Bachelor of Arts (Specialist, Political Science, International Relations) - University Of Toronto