Ananda Vikatan was started by Pudhoor Vaidyanadhaiyar in February 1926 as a monthly publication. The issue for December 1927 was not published due to financial difficulties. In January 1928 S. S. Vasan bought the rights from Vaidyanadhaiyer and relaunched the publication from February 1928 in a new format He paid ₹200 at the rate of ₹25 per alphabet in the Tamil language name of the publication to buy the rights. He built it up into a weekly and sales soon rose. Ananda Vikatan is still running successfully after ninety years. Veteran journalist and media personality S. Balasubramanian served as editor, managing director and publisher of the magazine for nearly 50 years till 2006. Balasubramanian also mentored generations of journalists and writers. He also started the "Manavar Thittam" or student journalism scheme that is active for the last 30 years and counting. He also launched Junior Vikatan, a biweekly Tamil investigative journal in the 1980s in addition to his many accomplishments as Vikatan's publisher. He was the son of S. S. Vasan and continues to be Chairman Emeritus of the group after handing over the reins to his son B. Srinivasan.