Meghna Deka joins Times of India Digital as national editor and head of video strategy

NEW DELHI: The prime-time anchor is trading the studio for the scroll. Times of India Digital (TOI Digital) has appointed Meghna Deka as national editor and head of video strategy, as it steps up its investment in video-led storytelling, new formats and original digital properties. The announcement was made on 1 October 2026 from New Delhi. Deka will report to Aditi Prasad, executive editor for video at Times of India Digital.

The brief is big. Deka will lead the strategy and growth of TOI Digital’s video business. Her mandate covers the existing Times of India video portfolio and the expansion of new video initiatives, with a particular focus on scaling the Times Axis, TOI Bharat and Defence HQ YouTube channels into distinctive video destinations. She will work with editorial and business teams to develop new formats, franchises and audience engagement opportunities across TOI Digital’s platforms.

Each of those channels has its own pitch. Times Axis is Times Internet’s hub for original programming, offering an India-first lens on the world and covering the defining stories of our times. Defence HQ is a dedicated YouTube channel that covers the biggest military and defence stories from India and around the world in snackable formats. TOI Bharat is a window to the Indian landscape, delivering breaking news, sharp political analysis and in-depth coverage of the stories shaping the country.

The hire is as much about pedigree as strategy. Deka brings more than 22 years of experience in broadcast journalism. She was previously editor-output and a prime-time anchor at Times Now, where she anchored “Decoding Now with Meghna Deka” and “Setting the Agenda”. As head of output, she led the channel’s strategy for the last eight years. Before that, she held editorial roles and anchored at CNN-News18, India Today, NewsX and NDTV.

The analysis is simple. Video is no longer a side dish at digital news houses, and TOI Digital says as much. The appointment is part of its wider push to make video a core growth driver. The strategy centres on building original intellectual properties, experimenting with new storytelling formats, and creating video propositions that suit how audiences now discover and consume content. Putting a newsroom veteran with two decades of audience instinct in charge is a clear signal that the group wants to move from making videos to building video brands.

Prasad is upbeat. “Video is now central to how audiences discover and engage with news,” she says. “Meghna has spent two decades in newsrooms, most visibly as the face of prime-time news on Times Now, and she knows instinctively what holds an audience’s attention. That instinct is exactly what we need as we move from making videos to building video brands. With properties like Defence HQ and Times Axis, we’ve shown there’s a real appetite for focused, authoritative video storytelling. Meghna’s job is to take that and scale it, and I’m genuinely optimistic about what we’ll build together.”

Deka is just as keen. “I’ve spent years trying to take audiences beyond the headlines, and video lets you do that like nothing else can,” she says. “The next phase of news video won’t be won by volume. It’ll be won by formats with a distinct voice that people choose to come back to. With the reach and trust of Times of India behind us, and properties like Times Axis and Defence HQ already showing the way, this is a great moment to build something new.”

With the appointment, TOI Digital aims to further integrate editorial strength with a more focused video strategy, creating scalable content properties and new audience touchpoints across its digital ecosystem.