News Broadcasting
moneycontrol.com editorial shuffled; moves to integrated news room
KOLKATA: From today, the skeleton editing staff of moneycontrol.com, a business and finance news portal, which operated from Matunga (West), will be operating from the television unit at Lower Parel.
It is learnt from industry sources that more than six reporters who were engaged in the financial news writing have been asked to leave.
“Network18 Group won’t be producing any original content for moneycontrol.com. It has adopted a rationalised move by laying off all the reporters engaged in financial news writing. More than six reporters have been asked to resign and made to cite that they are walking out from the news organisation on personal reasons, the release letters of the employees disclose,” revealed the highly placed media source.
TV18 Broadcast which has laid off around 300-400 people as a part of its restructuring exercise and has merged the operational teams of CNN IBN and IBN7, will now be producing the content for moneycontrol.com too. The young team would be editing the copies filed by the television bureau, sources added.
The portal’s editor Santosh Nair has been asked to report in the Lower Parel office, but there is no clarification regarding whom he will be reporting to. Earlier, Nair reported to R Jagannathan, editor at Firstpost.com.
Also, it is interesting to note that the portal’s chief executive officer Joyson Thomson was mulling to list the entity but it seems he has changed his plans overnight. “Though of late, moneycontrol.com was driven by marketing strategies and not hard core news perspective which it adopted earlier,” sources said.
There were talks the news portal would set up an editorial team at Delhi and Kolkata. “In fact a year ago, the company was eagerly looking to hire an editorial staff for the Delhi bureau,” sources said.
“The first carnage happened in the second week of August when TV18 said it would ask around 300-400 employees to leave. We got the notice in the last week of August,” recounts an employee.
When asked about the compensation package, he said: “The compensation package is up to the mark as we have been offered three months CTC and not in hand salary.”
Media analysts said that TV18 has restructured its operations and reduced its workforce significantly, as part of a cost cutting exercise due to the lackluster advertising environment and government regulations like the 12 minutes advertising cap on broad asters.
Now going forward with this downsizing, journalists are required to work across both internet and TV medium, as the group has created integrated newsrooms.
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.
