News Broadcasting
Prasun Bajpai, two top editors quit Sahara Samay
NEW DELHI: In a sudden development, Punya Prasun Bajpai, along with two top members of the editorial team, has exited the Sahara group’s flagship Hindi news channel Samay.
Bajpai, Sanjay Bragta and Narendra Pratap Singh, the numbers one, two and three at the channel, resigned and left the office this afternoon. It is also learnt that a total of eight people have left, though their names were not available at the time of filing this report.
Both Bajpai and the channel admitted to the developments, though details of the reasons behind it were sketchy.
However, it is learnt that there was a lengthy meeting between the top officials of the company and the channel heads, apparently to see if a compromise could be worked out. The meeting ended in the resignation of the three top men.
When contacted, Sumit Roy, who heads the news business for Sahara, had this to offer. “They were asked to resign because of non-performance and serious dispute with the management. We were not getting the TRPs and channel share, and this was unworkable.”
Defended Bajpai: “We were given the responsibility of improving the channel and bringing in credibility. We had taken several radical steps to professionalise the channel. It is there for all to see. So if they now say it was non-performance, that is their version of things, I have nothing to say.”
It was during Bajpai’s stint that Sahara Samay dropped the name ‘Sahara’ and donned a new look.
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.
