News Broadcasting
CNN launches mobile polling on ‘News Biz Today’
MUMBAI: CNN has announced that its regional breakfast programme News Biz Today has introduced a Question of the Day opinion poll. The poll enables viewers to participate via the web and mobile phone with CNN’s news programming. The broadcaster has stated that the poll is the first of its kind in Asia.
Each morning the shows anchors pose a question that is strongly relevant to the news of the day. Viewers around the world can participate in the polling either by text messaging with their GSM mobile phones (telephone number: +61 427 077 076) or online at the Question of the Day section at http://edition.cnn.com/asia or by email at nbt@cnn.com.
Viewers can also register online to receive questions on their mobile phones on a regular basis. Results of the poll will be updated throughout the show as well as online at the Question of the Day section.
News Biz Today is a three and a half hour rolling news programme. It is broadcast live from CNN’s regional production center in Hong Kong. Its focus rests on key stories making headlines throughout the morning. The programme provides live reports from the markets around the world that give an overview of business and financial developments, plus reports from CNN’s correspondents on news breaking across the region.
CNN International Asia Pacific senior VP Ian Macintosh was quoted in an official release saying, “CNN continues to lead the way in integrating television broadcast and new media. With this innovative interactive poll we are able to involve our audiences in our programming and get their feedback on the news issues of the day thereby adding a new interactive dimension to News Biz Today”.
The polling is being sponsored by Nokia, CNN’s long-time cross-platform marketing partner. Nokia is also the sponsor of CNN Mobile the mobile telephone news and information service that was jointly developed by CNN and Nokia in 1999, as well as CNN’s Tech Watch segment. This airs on News Biz Today and the network’s evening prime time show Asia Now.
Nokia Mobile Phones Asia Pacific marketing services director Pasi Jarvenpaa added, “We are pleased to sponsor CNN’s Question of the Day mobile polling service as it is very much in line with the Nokia vision for ‘Life goes Mobile’. This service increases the wireless interactivity opportunities on the mobile phone for users and allows users to participate by giving their opinions and vote on matters which are pertinent to the news of the day.”
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.
