News Broadcasting
News Corp dumps Andersen, appoints Ernst & Young as auditor
Auditing firm Arthur Andersen’s controversial links to failed energy giant Enron Corporation has had yet another fallout it appears. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has announced that its board of directors has appointed Ernst & Young to replace Arthur Andersen as the company’s independent auditors for the year ending 30 June 2002.
The appointment of Ernst & Young was made after careful consideration by the audit committee, the board of directors and management of the company, an official release says.
The decision to change auditors was not the result of any disagreement between the company and Arthur Andersen on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure, or auditing scope or procedure, the release states. During its tenure as the company’s independent auditors, Arthur Andersen has provided many years of quality service and has demonstrated a high level of professionalism, it adds.
The replacement of the independent auditors by the company’s board of directors was made pursuant to relief granted by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, the release concludes.
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.
