TV9 promotes political editor to managing editor’s job

NEW DELHI: Associated Broadcasting Co, which operates the TV9 network, has elevated Kartikeya Sharma to managing editor, handing the political journalist control of its newsroom after he spent the past two years climbing the ranks at rival News9 Broadcast TV.

Sharma, who joined News9 as deputy managing editor in July 2023, has boomeranged back to TV9, where he previously served as executive editor from March 2021 to July 2023. During that earlier stint, he anchored “Siyasat kee baat” and oversaw News9plus, billed as India’s first news-based streaming platform, whilst managing its podcast operation.

The 26-year veteran of Indian journalism cut his teeth as a sub-editor at The Asian Age in 1998 before moving through NDTV, The Week magazine, and two separate tours at India Today—where he rose from special correspondent to political editor over nearly a decade. He also logged time as chief political correspondent at News 24 and executive editor at NewsX, where he ran bureaus and occasionally helmed the channel.

His longest stretch came at Wion, Zee Network’s international news outfit, where he juggled dual roles as political editor and output editor from 2016 to 2021. The job sent him chasing stories across Myanmar, Syria, Congo, Vladivostok, Israel, Turkey and Indonesia—a globetrotting cv that included covering Japan’s tsunami and the bombing of India’s Kabul embassy.

Now back at TV9, Sharma faces the unenviable task of keeping viewers glued to linear television whilst everyone else pivots to streaming. Good luck with that.