News Broadcasting
Ernst & Young’s Nitin Atroley to oversee corporate affairs at Star
NEW DELHI: The new year has brought with it a wave of new appointments at various media companies, be it at Star, Sony or Zee. Yesterday it was Sony which announced the hiring of former Star TV programming whizkid Tarun Katial. Today, it is the turn of Star India Pvt Ltd to loop in a new hire at the senior management level: Ernst & Young’s Nitin Atroley to oversee corporate affairs and communications.
Atroley is joining the Rupert Murdoch-controlled Star India as an executive vice-president within the next ten days.
The 40-something Atroley would be joining Star India from the management and audit firm. According to information available with indiantelevision.com, the present team responsible for corporate communications and public relations would report to him.
Atroley’s arrival in Star India would indicate that the company is envisioning a bigger role for itself in the country’s corporate world, and could well include an impending initial public offer, which has been talked about for the last several years.
It is also a pointer to the fact that Star India wants its top management, including CEO Peter Mukerjea and his deputy Sameer Nair, to concentrate on the big plans that are in the offing, rather than keep dashing from Mumbai to Delhi and other cities to undertake political and corporate fire-fighting.
With the media scene hotting up, it seems unlikely that the new recruitment drive in television will ease off. Observers expect several other movements, corporate and editorial, in the next six months. This would include changes in Star News, which, under a new management team headed by ABP group’s Aveek Sarkar, is bracing itself for fierce skirmishes on the news channel front led by the likes of Aaj Tak and NDTV India.
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.
