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_Fountain Ink_, the Chennai-based longform monthly magazine, has shut down after nearly nine years. The magazine's final issue, its 101st edition, is dated March 2020. In his
editor's note, editor Saurav Kumar wrote: "A magazine like this was always a bit of a long shot in terms of commercial viability. The distribution systems and broken and a drain on
resources, getting advertisements is a mug's game, and year on year, even on the leanest of setups, costs can go only one way -- up." _Fountain Ink _started in November 2011. Its
stories have won 18 awards. Kumar's editor's note also mentioned the magazine's former reporter, Arpit Parashar, who died in December 2017. In 2015, the magazine broke the
story of Harjit Masih, one of 40 Indian workers kidnapped by ISIS. Masih escaped while the other 39 survived, and the story quoted a representative from the Ministry of External Affairs as
saying there was no "proof of life". Sushma Swaraj, then the external affairs minister, insisted to the media and families of those kidnapped that the 39 Indians were alive. Swaraj
only confirmed their deaths in 2018. It's tough for independent media to survive in these times. That's why you need to pay to keep news free. Subscribe to _Newslaundry_ here.
