News Broadcasting
Republic Media Network set to foray into Bengali market
KOLKATA: Republic Media Network is set to expand its operation in Bengali language, marking its first regional foray. According to sources, the news network will also have a broadcast operation in the market along with its website.
The network has already started hiring journalists in West Bengal. It recently shared a post on its timeline for the same.
“We are the fastest growing news brand in the country. We will expand into various language markets either with linear or digital and in some markets both. There is a huge demand for Republic in West Bengal. Arnab and all of us in key management team are keenly evaluating and look forward to launching across markets starting with East,” Republic Media Network CEO Vikas Khanchandani said.”
However, he did not divulge any details on timeline of the launch.
The network also strengthened its online presence by launching a Hindi news portal in October this year.
Read more: Republic Media expands presence in online news space, launches in Hindi language
Earlier in a virtual fireside chat hosted by Indiantelevision.com, Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami said that the broadcaster will be operating in six languages, including its existing English and Hindi portfolio, by March 2021.
The expansion comes amid troubled times at the channel, which is embroiled in the high-profile TRP gaming scandal. Several employees and leaders in the upper echelons of the Republic have been called in for questioning by the police in connection to the case; several arrests were also made. Meanwhile, Goswami, essentially the face of the channel, also has his hands full with the abetment to suicide case filed against him by Maharashtra police. The newsman was arrested and remanded in judicial custody for 10 days, before being granted interim bail by the Supreme Court.
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.
