News Broadcasting
Times Now VP and business head Partho Das Gupta quits
MUMBAI: Times Global Broadcasting vice-president and business head Partho Das Gupta is said to have put in his papers, according to reliable sources. Though Das Gupta’s next destination is yet to be revealed, Indiantelevision.com learns that, Das Gupta will continue to work in the media and entertainment space.
When contacted, the Times Global Broadcasting spokesperson refused to comment on Das Gupta’s departure.
Das Gupta played a key role in the birth of the Times Now and also witnessed the transition of the then proposed business channel to the general English news channel. He was also instrumental in executing the collaboration deal between The Times of India Group and Reuters, the international multimedia news agency.
At Times Global Broadcasting, he was responsible for managing the marketing, sales and distribution aspects of the pay channel. He was responsible for setting up the distribution team.
A qualified mechanical engineer and an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, Das Gupta had been associated with the Times Group for last seven and a half years. He had been actively involved with brands including The Economic Times, Times Multimedia and the ET Intelligence Group, the research wing of The Economic Times. He has also worked with companies like Crisil, Union Carbide and Tetra Pak, to name a few.
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
