Outlook Magazine - 30 Years of Irreverence - 01 January 2026 Issue

It was a classic David versus Goliath story; but for the world of publishing. In 1995, a small group of enthusiastic journalists, led by an even more enthusiastic editor, launched a tiny, low-budget magazine called Outlook. It didn’t even have an office building yet and operated out of two rooms of a government-owned Lodhi Hotel (not the present swanky version). Their aim was clear – to rival a media giant named India Today, along with smaller titans like Frontline and others. The time for print was dead, said the naysayers. TV had arrived. It had faces and words (not as loud as today) and early news delivery. But Mehta and co. didn’t care. They had a job to do. To slay the giant. To report. To bring change. Outlook’s first issue opened with Kashmir. Copies of the magazine were burnt. But the magazine already showed its irreverence to prescribed notions, standards, and everything else at a time when reporting from the region demanded courage, patience, and clarity. We did it. Unafraid, unapologetic, unhinged. Over thirty years, governments fell and rose, culture transformed, the internet reshaped the world, globalisation accelerated, and Outlook, too, changed. Leadership evolved. Inclusivity deepened. Lenses were swapped. The magazine expanded its horizon, moving beyond the urgency of the moment to reflect, analyse, and step back. Through a ten-day cycle, thematic issues now explore politics, culture, conflict, and resistance in depth, finding meaning in poetry, art, and literature alongside reporting. The past is present, the present is immediate, and together they shape the future. Thirty years of questions, investigations, breaking news, and building stories. From Vinod Mehta to Chinki Sinha. From a newly liberalised economy to a post-truth world in which asking questions is dangerous. From old masculinities to inclusive journalism. This hundred-page special issue captures fond and forgotten memories. The future will hold all these thirty years—and more. And we will continue to be irreverent.