News Broadcasting
PM Narendra Modi’s interview with ANI News garners 5.9 mn impressions
MUMBAI: Indian PM Narendra Modi gave an interview to ANI News on 1 January 2019. It raked in 5.9 million impressions in the Hindi news genre, according to BARC India.
As per a tweet by the audience measurement agency, (HSM 15+) the interview garnered great traction in the 6-7.30 pm time slot. During the course of the interview, PM Modi said that any decision on bringing an ordinance on Ram Mandir can be considered only after the judicial process gets over. He also targeted the Congress for creating “obstacles” in the Supreme Court and slowing down the judicial process.
He also spoke on various issues from ranging from RBI governor Urjit Patel’s resignation to demonetisation to the Grand Alliance of opposition parties against the Bharatiya Janata Party and its NDA allies in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
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.
