How MTC Helped Rupa Jha Launch a 300-Person Newsroom
December 1, 2025
LONDON – When Rupa Jha joined the Media Transformation Challenge at the height of COVID in 2021, she was logging on from Delhi at three in the morning. Still, she insists it never felt like a burden.
“It was an oasis,” she told MTC coach Fran Scarlett onstage at the organization’s recent London Leadership Forum. “Even at 12am or 2am, I felt happy to be surrounded by people on a mission.”
At the time, she faced a pivotal challenge at BBC News: the India index page was underperforming, drawing just 2.3 million weekly unique visitors in a country of 1.4 billion – the BBC’s largest global market. By applying MTC tools, she lifted traffic by 40 percent.
“I said, let’s put 50 percent as the goal,” she laughed. “We ended at 40, but my MTC coach, Quentin Hope, wasn’t mad.”
What shifted the most, she says, was her approach to people and power. MTC tools like Constituency Mapping and the Power/Opinion Matrix helped her navigate BBC’s internal structures and build support across teams.
“Winning people over was huge,” she said. “Constituency Mapping was extremely important for me, and DVP (an equation for change that states Change = Dissatisfaction x Vision x Process) helped me understand how to create dissatisfaction with the status quo.”
One of MTC’s key metaphors also stuck.
“You can’t always be on the dance floor,” she said. “How do you get to the balcony? That mindset stayed with me.”
Those tools took on even greater significance when Indian media law changes put her in a position to co-found Collective Newsroom, now a 300-person, nine-language operation where she serves as CEO and editor-in-chief.
“From/To made my life easy,” she said. “It helped me understand the gaps in moving from being a journalist to running a company. And as a woman dealing with imposter syndrome, the power tools helped me sit at the negotiating table with confidence.”
Rupa still leans on her cohort and the broader alumni network, from WhatsApp chats to connecting with senior leaders at The New York Times.
“When you tell them you’re part of the same program, doors open,” she said.
MTC’s Tools endure, she added, because they help leaders see the system around them.
“The program gives you a framework for how to think. You may already know these concepts, but MTC helps you spot them. And once you see them, you can’t unsee them.”
Apply now to the 2026 Media Transformation Challenge Executive Leadership Program.