News Broadcasting
Puja Sethi exits Times Network after brief tenure
NEW DELHI: Puja Sethi is on the move again. After ten months as managing editor of Times Network Digital, she has announced her departure—the latest chapter in a career that has taken her through nearly every corner of Indian media since the turn of the millennium.
The move, described by Sethi as “difficult” and made “after much reflection”, ends a stint that began in March 2025. It continues a pattern of strategic pivots that have defined her professional trajectory. Her LinkedIn profile reads like a guided tour of India’s evolving digital media landscape: India TV (two-and-a-half years), Zee Entertainment (two years, seven months), myUpChar.com (one year, three months), Jagran New Media (six years, ten months in various roles).
Sethi’s career began in the early days of Indian private broadcasting, when she anchored programmes for All India Radio and Doordarshan as a freelancer. She was then scouted by Moving Pictures to present Subha Savere, billed as India’s first Hindi news breakfast show, before moving to “India This Week” as a political correspondent. By 2002, she had landed at Indiatimes, where she ran mobile content for short code 58888—India’s most widely subscribed text service at the time, back when people actually paid for SMS news alerts.
Print beckoned next. Sethi served as executive editor of two hyper-local newspapers, Neighbourhood Flash and Jagran Cityplus, launching 48 editions of the latter across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune.
Then it was back online: editor of OnlyMyHealth.com, where she grew the user base to over 5 million, followed by a lengthy stint as digital head at Jagran New Media, managing content strategy and partnerships.
The vice-president role at myUpChar.com came in 2019, before she joined Zee Entertainment as group editor in April 2020, navigating the pandemic’s digital acceleration. By October 2022, she had moved to India TV, also as group editor. Three years later, Times Network came calling.
What next? Sethi, an English literature graduate from Lady Shri Ram College and a master’s from Miranda House, has not said. Her LinkedIn post speaks of “new challenges” and “the next chapter”—the standard language of career transitions, though given her track record, something substantial is likely brewing.
If there is a constant in Sethi’s career, it is adaptability. She has worked across radio, television, print, mobile content, online health portals, regional news networks and national broadcasters. She has launched products, grown audiences, managed teams and overseen digital strategies through multiple technological revolutions. Indian media’s evolution from analogue to digital, from SMS to social, from desktop to mobile—she has been there for all of it. Whether the next chapter involves another newsroom or something entirely different, it will likely reflect the same versatility that has marked her three decades in the business.
News Broadcasting
Network18 Q4 revenue grows 9.7 per cent, EBITDA at Rs 30 crore
PAT improves to Rs 306.6 crore, margins steady amid cost pressures.
MUMBAI: Not all news is breaking, some of it is quietly improving. Network18 Media & Investments Limited appears to be doing just that, tightening losses and stabilising margins even as costs continue to weigh on the business. For FY26, the company reported revenue from operations of Rs 1,955.1 crore, up from Rs 1,896.2 crore in FY25, signalling modest top-line growth in a challenging media environment. Total income stood at Rs 1,978.2 crore, compared to Rs 1,913 crore a year earlier.
Profit after tax came in at Rs 306.6 crore for the year, a sharp turnaround from Rs 3,225.4 crore in FY25, largely reflecting the absence of large exceptional items that had inflated the previous year’s numbers. On a more comparable basis, the company’s operating performance showed signs of gradual stabilisation.
However, the quarterly picture remained under pressure. For the March quarter, Network18 reported a loss of Rs 53.1 crore, narrower than the Rs 98.1 crore loss in the same period last year, but still indicative of ongoing cost challenges.
Expenses continued to track high. Total expenses for FY26 stood at Rs 2,235.7 crore, up from Rs 2,197.8 crore in FY25. Key cost heads included operational expenses of Rs 765.9 crore, employee benefits of Rs 475.9 crore, and marketing, distribution and promotional spends of Rs 427.1 crore, underlining the continued investment required to sustain reach and engagement.
At an operating level, margins remained under strain. Operating margin stood at 2.33 per cent for FY26, marginally higher than 1.77 per cent in FY25, while net profit margin remained negative at -13.02 per cent, though improved from -14.89 per cent.
On the balance sheet, total assets rose to Rs 8,957.6 crore as of 31 March 2026, from Rs 8,317.5 crore a year earlier. Equity strengthened to Rs 4,958.7 crore, while borrowings increased to Rs 3,112.8 crore, reflecting a higher reliance on debt to support operations.
Cash flows told a mixed story. While financing activities generated Rs 83.9 crore, operating cash flow remained negative at Rs -24 crore, highlighting ongoing pressure on core cash generation. Cash and cash equivalents, however, improved to Rs 33.9 crore from Rs 1.8 crore.
The numbers point to a company in transition growing revenues, trimming losses, but still grappling with structural cost pressures. In a sector where scale often comes at a price, Network18 seems to be inching towards balance, one quarter at a time.
