News Broadcasting
Al Jazeera English becomes available on YouTube
MUMBAI: Al Jazeera English announced plans to begin making clips from its news and programmes available to the YouTube community by launching a Channel.
(http://www.youtube.com/aljazeeraenglish) on the popular video-sharing site.
YouTube users worldwide will have the ability to comment on Al Jazeera English clips, rate them, recommend them to friends and post their own video responses to communicate with other viewers.
The new branded Channel will also include links to Al Jazeera English’s official website (www.aljazeera.net/english).
Content from the new global broadcaster will include segments from top shows such as Frost over the World, Everywoman, inside Iraq, Inside Story, Listening Post, Riz Khan, One-on-One, The Fabulous Picture Show, Witness and 48.
Speaking on the announcement, Al Jazeera English managing director Nigel Parsons said: “We believe that YouTube is a perfect platform to reach out to our audience and to give wide and easy access to new viewers around the world. We have significantly built on our distribution since launch and now reach well in access of 90 million cable and satellite households worldwide. With YouTube’s community of millions of online users this is set to dramatically increase.”
Al Jazeera English is also planning to release some exclusive web-only programming, starting with Poltical Bytes, a global conversation hosted by UN correspondent Mark Seddon which will ask the YouTube community to carry on the conversation and add video contributions.
Over time, Al Jazeera English will continue to provide new content to the site by adding at least 10-15 new clips each week.
Commenting on the launch, Al Jazeera Web and New Media English editor in chief Russell Merryman said “The new Al Jazeera English branded Channel on YouTube will allow us to approach and interact with our viewers in a new way and will give us a chance to target other potential audiences through this new global platform. It is a perfect way to promote our best content and set the news agenda for Internet users around the world.”
Al Jazeera English is the world’s first English language news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East. Its head quartered in Doha and broadcasting from within the Middle East
YouTube is in online video, and a destination to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience.
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.
