News Broadcasting
David Bainbridge to lead BBC’s digital marketing initiatives
MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC has appointed David Bainbridge to lead the marketing of its digital and new media services. Bainbride is currently YooMedia’s business-to-business arm MD. He takes up his new job in May.
The appointment follows the BBC’s decision to restructure its marketing, communications and audiences division, and the new high level post indicates the importance the corporation places on the future of digital services.
His responsibilities will include driving the BBC’s Building Digital Britain activities including driving the take-up of digital television and radio (DAB), On Demand TV usage, new internet/broadband penetration and driving the reach of the bbc.co.uk sites.
Leading a team of 15 marketing and communication professionals, he will also play a key role in the BBC’s involvement in Freeview and Digital UK and the development of a free satellite offering by the BBC and other industry partners. He will report to BBC director of marketing, communications and audiences Tim Davie. He will be an integral part of the BBC New Media management team led by Ashley Highfield, who is the director of new media and technology.
Davie said, “David has an impressive record of achievement in the marketing, broadcast and new media sectors. He is the right person to lead marketing and communications for the BBC’s Building Digital Britain ambitions, and I am delighted to have recruited a candidate of such outstanding calibre to join our strong BBC team.”
Highfield said, “David has a wealth of experience in understanding our audiences’ needs in this rapidly changing world. His skills will be critical to us to maintain our reach and relevance with our digital services. We very much look forward to him joining the team.”
Bainbridge said, “It doesn’t come much more exciting than helping to figure out the role the BBC plays in a converged world. Combine this with telling the British population what this means in real terms and the impact it could have on their every day lives and you have one of the most interesting communication challenges in the UK over the next few years.”
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.
