Sakal (Marathi: सकाळ, meaning "Morning") is a Marathi-language journal of the Sakal Media Group, based in Pune, Maharashtra, India. Sakal is the Sakal Media Group's main publication newspaper. It is among the top 10 Indian language journals. It is the website of Alexa with the best ranking in the Marathi category. Dr. N. P. a.k.a. Nanasaheb Parulekar was the founder of Sakal. It is published in the cities of Pune, Mumbai, Kolhapur, Sangli, Nashik, Aurangabad, Nanded, Solapur, Nagpur, Satara, Amravati and Jalgaon. Other operations of the group consist of regional newspapers, magazines and publications on the Internet, which employ more than 3,000 people. It has one of Marathi's largest websites, eSakal, which reaches 300,000 Internet users worldwide.
Sakal was a classic newspaper of the nationalist period of the pre-independence. Its idealist founder, Dr. N.P. Alias Nanasaheb Parulekar had been influenced by American newspapers during his years at Columbia University. Introducing Sakal (morning) to advance the Mahatma Gandhi movement for independence, he also demonstrated the path to genuine daily journalism in Marathi. Although initiated as part of the nationalist cause, after Indian independence, the Sakal newspaper established itself as a successful business by reporting on the day-to-day concerns not only of Pune but also of its rural neighbourhoods. In the 1960s, Sakal appointed full-time correspondents, each with a telephone, in every city in his neighbourhood. He directed training camps for his journalists, promotions and cultural events for his readers and letters to the editor on his cover page. Under Nanasaheb Parulekar, the document maintained strict political neutrality and supported candidates for local, state or national elections purely on the basis of their merit.