NYOOOZ

Problem

How might we design a hyperlocal news platform that gives underserved Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities timely, relevant, and trustworthy reporting — while supporting local journalists and making content accessible across languages and devices?

News in India has long been dominated by national and metro-city narratives. Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, despite their growing populations and influence, often remain under-served by mainstream media. Local citizens face a number of challenges when trying to access timely, relevant, and trustworthy news about their own towns: Lack of Local Coverage Traditional publishers prioritize national and metro-city stories. Important issues at the district or neighborhood level rarely make it to their platforms.

Approach

To address the unique challenges of hyperlocal news, we focused on designing an ecosystem that balanced the needs of readers, local journalists, and editorial teams. Our approach combined user-centered research with lean, mobile-first product execution:

• Audience & Market Research — Field studies and interviews in Tier-2/3 cities uncovered how people discover and consume news, highlighting gaps left by mainstream media.
• Content Strategy & CMS Design — Built a lightweight multilingual CMS that enabled quick filing of stories with editorial oversight, and automatic city-level categorization.
• Mobile-First Experience — Prioritized lightweight Android and PWA apps with swipe- and card-based navigation, designed for small screens and low bandwidth.
• Scaling Local Voices — Onboarded freelance journalists and stringers, creating workflows for amplification and experimenting with contributor incentives.
• Growth & Distribution — Leveraged SEO, tagging, and Google partnerships to boost visibility, supported by analytics dashboards tracking user engagement and trends.

This structured approach helped NYOOOZ scale from a city-level experiment into a platform reaching millions of users, while staying grounded in the realities of underserved communities.

Outcomes

• Scaled from 0 → 50M+ users across 50+ cities, building a trusted presence in underserved regions.
• Secured GNI funding with Google News amongst a few publishers across the world, integrating hyperlocal voices into national narratives.
• Successfully pivoted to a video-first model, driving a 3x increase in engagement among younger audiences.
• Introduced ad formats tailored for Tier 2/3 advertisers, enabling local businesses to monetize digital media for the first time.
• Raised venture funding and gained national press coverage as a benchmark for local news innovation in India.

“NYOOOZ set a new benchmark for digital-first journalism in Tier 2/3 India — bridging grassroots voices with scalable technology.” — Digital India Journal

Reflection

Leading NYOOOZ taught me that growth and innovation in emerging markets require equal measures of empathy, design discipline, and business pragmatism. While scaling was rewarding, the real lessons came from the missteps: a clunky first CMS, the slow adoption curve, and balancing editorial trust with monetization.

• Design for Constraints — we prioritized low-bandwidth performance, multilingual UX, and simple flows over personalization and “flashy” features.
• Monetization as Design — crafting ad formats that felt non-intrusive while serving local SMEs was as much a UX challenge as a business one.
• Leadership Growth — I grew from being a designer to balancing product, team, and business priorities — a foundation for my later enterprise work.

Building NYOOOZ reinforced that design at scale means thinking beyond pixels: it’s about creating an ecosystem where technology enables local voices, users find relevance, and the business can sustain growth.