Delhi Press was established by Vishwanath in 1939. The company's first magazine was Caravan in 1940, and its flagship magazine was the Hindi-language Sarita launched in 1945. Vishwanath was known for his stable of low-priced magazines that were aimed to the masses, such as Sarita, Saras Salil, Woman's Era, Champak, and Grihshobha. Vishwanath was a proponent of simple Hindi. Sarita used to have a column "यह किस देश-प्रदेश की भाषा है" which used to present a sample of hard to follow language. The articles and stories in Sarita used to be short and readable. It is now managed by his descendants including son Paresh Nath and grandson Anant Nath. Related organizations, Pramod Engineering and MassCoMedia were founded by another son Naresh Nath which is now run by Divesh Nath and Rohit Nath. The magazine business has been very challanging in India as well globally, with many highly regarded magazines such as Dharmayug, Illustrated Weekly of India, and Life magazine ceasing publication. However the Delhi Press magazines have not only survived but thrived, and the group has added new magazines. Delhi Press' advertising revenues are 60% and circulation revenues are 40%. Its sales through home delivery exceeds 50%. Magazines sell for Rs 30-60, with total revenue about Rs. 100 crore. The Vishv Books division has published a large number of books. It was founded by Vishwanath's another son Rakesh Nath. It publishes a variety of books including numerous books written or edited by Rakesh Nath or books by famous authors such as Tagore, Premchand or Satyabhakta. In recently years his daughter Mudit Mohini published and authored a large number of popular children's books. The books include pop-up books, construction books,, books for early learners, "I'm Unique" and graded learning books. She also publishes and manages complete unit of School curriculum books which are used in Indian as well as International schools. They are exporting large number of books to various countries as well as selling content rights across the world.
Controversies
Delhi Press, and specially its magazine Sarita has been involved in numerous controversies. Sarita has frequently published articles that are critical of Hindu texts, traditions and institutions. It has been the subjects of many lawsuits and government bans. In practically all cases, the lawsuits and bans have been thrown out in the courts. A notable controversy arose on the poem "Ram Ka Antardwand" by Arvind kumar which was published in Sarita on July 1957. referring to the banishment of Sita. Arvind Kumar acknowledgd that the poem was inspired by Shailendra's song in Awaara "Pativrta Sitamai Ko Tune Diya Banwas". Acharya Tulsi similarly faced opposition because of his poem "Agnipariksha" in 1970.
