News Broadcasting
Zee confirms Vaishnava’s new responsibilities & other major changes
MUMBAI: Zee’s Purushottam Vaishnav, as flashed by Indiantelevision.com on Sunday (9 July), will be handling three additional channels, now being designated as editor for Zee Bihar – Jharkhand and will also be responsible for Orissa and West Bengal. Bhibhu Patnaik and Anirban Choudhary will be aligned to Purushottam Vaishnav, according to an organisational announcement.
After the above changes take effect, Uday Nirgudkar, Dileep Tiwari, Dinesh Sharma, Vaishnav, Anurag Bhatnagar, Kamal Dhingra, Manoj Jagayasi and Harjit Singh will be reporting into the vice president-chairman’s office till further orders.
Zee Media’s regional channel CEO, Jagdish Chandra has expressed his desire to lighten his load of his current responsibilities of all regional news network as well as DNA (all editions) considering the fact that he has been continuously travelling for 20-25 days a month which has been taking a huge toil on his health.
Considering the above, the management has therefore decided that going forward he will be handling responsibilities of following:
1. Zee Rajasthan
2. Zee Hindustan
3. Zee Salaam (Urdu)
4. DNA Jaipur Edition
In the meantime, till the changes are realigned he will continue to handle the current role and responsibilities for a fortnight.
In addition to the above three channels, he will also look after various business interest of group in Rajasthan mainly Zee Studio, Solar park, Cable and Broadband business as well as any other actions that may be required in Rajasthan. He will also continue to assist the Group in any area that may be entrusted to him outside Rajasthan. Chandra will continue to be on the board of ZMCL and DNA while stepping down as CEO of DNA. His designation will continue as CEO Regional News Network with above responsibilities.
It is further being clarified that following changes are being made in the roles and responsibilities of regional news network:
Nirgudkar in addition to his responsibility of Zee 24 Taas will also be responsible for Zee 24 Kalaak. Deepak Rajani will be reporting into Nirgudkar.
Tiwari, in addition to his current responsibility of Zee MP-CG, will also be responsible for the new upcoming channel Zee UP-UK.
Sharma, who is handling Zee PHH, will, in addition to editorial responsibility, also handle the sales for Zee PHH. The sales team for this territory will be aligned to Sharma.
Jagyasi and Singh from Zee Unimedia will continue to be responsible for the sales of other regional channels in addition to handling sales for channels being handled directly by Chandra.
Dwaiyapan Bose, editor in chief of DNA, will be reporting to Sudhir Choudhary while Bhatnagar and Dhingra will be in the interim responsible for sales and all other functions of DNA, respectively. The resident Editor of DNA Jaipur Edition will report into Chandra.
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.
