News Broadcasting
Atika Shubert is CNN’s new Tokyo correspondent
MUMBAI: CNN has appointed Atika Shubert as a CNNs Tokyo correspondent.Shubert will be replacing Rebecca Mackinnon.
Her latest job portfolio include responsibility for the global news networks coverage of Japan Shubert joined CNN in 2000 and covered news from the Jakarta bureau. Prior to that, she was a correspondent for the Washington Post and the New Zealand Herald in Indonesia.
In association with the present Jakarta bureau head Maria Ressa, Shubert has also covered major news events in Indonesia, including the Bali bombing attack in 2002, the fall of Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid and the inauguration of the current President Megawati Sukarnoputri, East Timors transition to independence, the resurgence of the Free Aceh separatist movement, the religious conflict in Ambon, the fall of Indonesian former President Suharto as well as the student reform movement. She has also contributed reports from the Philippines and Singapore, says a company release.
Since she started reporting from Tokyo on attachment from Indonesia, in January 2004, Shubert has already covered several major news stories including the controversial deployment of Japans self defense forces to Iraq, the Japanese hostage case in Iraq, and the verdict of Shoko Asahara, the criminal mastermind behind the 1995 sarin gas attack in Tokyo.
Shubert graduated with a bachelors degree in Economics from Tufts University in Boston and speaks Bahasa Indonesia.
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.
