Founded by the eminent journalist Dr. N. B. Parulekar, and established in 1932, the Sakal Media Group is the largest independently owned media business in Maharashtra. Headquartered in Pune, the educational and cultural capital of the state, the Sakal Media Group owns and operates newspapers and magazines in Marathi as well as English with a circulation across Maharashtra and Goa. The newspapers and magazines owned by the group in Marathi and English have a combined readership of over 6 million. The group also has interests in digital media, event management services, commercial printing and also runs a regional television channel. Sakal, the flagship brand of the Sakal Media Group, was published first as a 4-page daily in Pune. On May 7, 2008 the media group started publishing the English version with the title Sakal Times.
Mr. Abhijit Pawar took up the role of Group Managing Director of the entire media group in the year 2004, while his father, Shri Pratap Govindrao Pawar took up the role of Mentor and Chairman.
With a workforce of over 3500 and a vendor network that exceeds 25,000, the Sakal Media Group is a people-focused organization with an open and vibrant work environment offering scope for advancement and growth. Guided by the philosophy of ‘Social First’, all group initiatives are guided by their potential for social impact and transformation.
Imbibed the virtue of ‘continuous learning’ in its approach right from the beginning, Sakal has ensured its sensitiveness to the challenges faced by the state as well as the country; and has brought about an active engagement of the group with its readers.
The Sakal Media Group believes that the role of media today has moved away from being ‘an advocate of social causes’ to in fact being the facilitator or the agent of social change in itself. Knowing that these transformations cannot happen in silos, the Sakal Media Group has taken the onus to bring together all the four pillars of democracy – the Executive, Legislature, Judiciary and Media under one umbrella to work together towards social and economic transformation. Recent initiatives such as the Pune Bus Day, which galvanized 7 million citizens of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad towards the shared concern of public transportation; the Tanishka Foundation, a progressive network of women aimed at empowering women and enabling them to find solutions to issues affecting their communities; the Young Inspirators Network (YIN), a network formed to integrate the youth in creating a spirited and unified platform that inspires and engages them to participate in the critical process of nation building; and many other activities across key social and economic sectors are all evidence of the Group’s stance of being the agent of social change.
