News Broadcasting
BBC to host conference on Africa
MUMBAI: UK broadcaster the BBC and the Corporation of London will host a major one day conference BBC Africa 2015 on 18 March 2005, at The Guildhall in London.
Coming after the Government-led Africa Commission report and the tenth Red Nose Day for Comic Relief, the event will focus on the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals for Africa and will deliver an honest and transparent review of progress and a closer look at commitments for the future to help transform Africa into a vibrant business and cultural centre.
One session at the event will consider the roles of the media and business in securing a more sustainable, integrated and secure future for Africa. Keynote speakers at the conference will include BBC Chairman Michael Grade, Sir Bob Geldof, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, Lord David Puttnam and Nestle chairman and CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathé.
The conference will be attended by more than 500 senior leaders from the diplomatic community, politics, business, NGOs, charities and public bodies, the international development community and the media. The sessions will be hosted by BBC Foreign Affairs correspondent Fergal Keane and BBC Economics Editor Evan Davis.
World music superstar Baaba Maal is flying in from Senegal to close the conference.
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.
