News Broadcasting
Ajay Vidyasagar is head of marketing, communications at Star India
MUMBAI: Star India’s head of its Tamil language channel Vijay TV has been given a new portfolio.
Ajay Vidyasagar, general manager (regional channels), now heads marketing and channel communications of the entire Star network.
Reporting directly to Vidyasagar are the respective marketing and press relations (PR) heads Mubina Ansari, vice-president marketing and Shola Rajachandran, vice-president publicity and PR.
Vidyasagar’s number two at Vijay TV, deputy general manager Harsh Rohatgi, is now overall head of Star’s regional language channel.
With Vidyasagar’s appointment, there is now a clear demarcation between corporate communications and channel PR. While Vidyasagar will have overall responsibility for channel PR, Nitin Atroley, brought in as executive vice-president corporate affairs and communications in January this year, will manage corporate communications.
Meanwhile, Star is still to fill in the vacancy left by the shifting of senior V-P Yash Khanna from corporate communications to head of client relations early last month.
News Broadcasting
Rajesh Sundaram joins NDTV Profit as senior editor, assignment
The 32-year newsroom veteran has launched channels on three continents and covered everything from 9/11 to South African television
MUMBAI: NDTV Profit has bolstered its newsroom with a hire who has done rather more than most. Rajesh Sundaram, a journalist with over three decades of editorial, managerial and consultative experience across India and international markets, joins as senior editor, assignment, tasked with sharpening the network’s newsgathering and real-time response.
Sundaram’s career reads like a tour of Indian media’s most formative moments. He began at Businessworld in 1994, moved to Zee News as bureau chief across Mumbai and Chennai, then joined NDTV in 2002 as part of its political bureau during a particularly febrile period in Indian politics. A stint as India correspondent for Al Jazeera International followed, where he covered key geopolitical developments and got his first serious taste of the global newsroom.
What sets Sundaram apart, however, is his serial channel-launching habit. At NewsX, he helped get the operation off the ground. At Headlines Today, part of the India Today Group, he served as editor. At News Nation, he helped launch the Hindi news channel and its digital ecosystem. He then crossed continents to lead the launch of ANN7 in South Africa as editor-in-chief, overseeing both television and digital. Back in India, he launched Tamil news channels News7 Tamil and Cauvery News, and later served as principal consultant for the launch of Marathi channel Lokshahi. Most recently, he helped build and lead the Press Trust of India’s video service and content studio, before stints consulting for Business Today and The Himalayan Times.
Rahul Kanwal, chief executive and editor-in-chief of NDTV, left little doubt about what Sundaram is expected to deliver. “The assignment desk is where a newsroom’s intent becomes action,” he said. “Rajesh brings a rare combination of field experience and leadership in building news operations at scale.”
Sundaram has reported from across India and the world, covering elections, civil conflicts, the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the 2008 US presidential election.
At NDTV Profit, he will lead the assignment desk, driving editorial coordination and real-time response across markets and breaking developments. For a business news network sharpening its focus on speed and multi-platform delivery, it has hired a man who has built newsrooms from scratch on three continents. The assignment desk is in good hands.
