The Asom Bani closure ended one of Assam’s long-running Assamese weeklies in September 2025. It also sharpened focus on the Assam Tribune group’s ongoing financial and organisational strain.
The Guwahati-based group stopped printing Asom Bani without a public statement on its future. The weekly had appeared for decades as a Friday title for Assamese readers.
Asom Bani Closure Followed Merger Into Dainik Asom
Before publication stopped, the management folded Asom Bani into Dainik Asom as a Friday supplement. That supplement edition reached newsstands for the last time on 12 September 2025, according to the account in the original report.
Asom Bani began on 1 July 1955 under Assamese entrepreneur Radha Govinda Baruah. Over the decades, the weekly reported key political and social shifts in Assam, including language debates in schooling, the anti-influx agitation, insurgency-era upheaval, and the rise of regional politics.
The publication also built a strong editorial lineage. The draft lists former editors including Satish Chandra Kakati, Tilak Hazarika, Phani Talukdar, Nirod Chowdhury, Homen Bargohain, and Chandraprasad Shaikia. Dilip Chandan served as the last editor and worked with the weekly for nearly three decades, the report said.
Assam Tribune Group Crisis Tightened After the Pandemic
The draft links the group’s sharper downturn to the Covid-19 period. It says lower circulation and weaker advertising revenue hit the group’s finances.
The report also describes irregular salary payments and unpaid dues, including money owed to retired staff. Union leaders, it says, alleged the group did not receive a large amount of state advertising payments through Assam’s information and public relations directorate.
Sale Rumours, a Denial Statement, and the Dainik Asom Handover
The report says rumours circulated about a possible sale of the media group to a city-based television house. It says the Assam Tribune management denied those claims in a statement and said it remained committed to editorial independence and integrity.
The same account then describes a separate move involving Dainik Asom. It says the Assam Tribune management handed responsibility for the daily to a media group owned by entrepreneur Kishor Borah, linked in the draft to the Assamese satellite news channel ND24.
The report puts that deal’s public disclosure on 17 September 2025. It says the new operator continued Dainik Asom but did not continue Asom Bani as an independent title.
Assam Tribune building
Layoffs and Dues Dispute Moved Toward Labour Court
The draft says the new Dainik Asom management did not retain all staff. It says more than 70 employees lost jobs on 18 September 2025, including workers on extended tenures with monthly lump-sum payments.
It also says the Assam Tribune management promised legal dues within weeks, but staff did not receive payments. The report says affected workers approached the labour court and claimed dues of about six crore rupees in total.
The draft notes that the media house once gained notice as India’s first institution to implement the Majithia Wage Board recommendations in 2010. It contrasts that history with the current dispute over unpaid retirement and employment-related payments.
Observers Raised Credibility Questions Around Coverage and Internal Culture
The report says media observers view the group as a credibility-focused institution in earlier years. It also says some observers now believe those standards weakened.
It points to the paper’s extensive coverage of the 2019 anti-Citizenship Amendment Act movement in Assam, and the fear that the law would undermine the Assam Accord of 1985. It also mentions controversial reporting around a city press club election, which the draft describes as biased and damaging to reputations.
The report ends by arguing the group’s problems did not come from the pandemic alone. It attributes part of the deterioration to internal dysfunction and weak management response.
The Asom Bani closure now stands as both the end of a 1955-era weekly and a marker of deeper instability inside one of Assam’s best-known newspaper groups.
