News Broadcasting
Sahara news rejigs personnel
MUMBAI: In line with the restructuring happening in the overall Sahara group’s media business, the news segment too is undergoing changes with an endeavour to create synergy in the editorial line-up and several changes have been effected with effect from Friday.
Rao Birendra Singh, who had been looking after Sahara Samay U.P (the Uttar Pradesh-specific news channel), has been elevated and given additional responsibilties of Sahara Samay Rashtriya, the national news channel.
The mandate for him is to not only groom the two news channels, but also a successor and a deputy.
Prabudhraj Singh, who was the bureau chief of the Hindi news service, has now been made the editorial head of Sahara Samay NCR, a news channel aimed at the city of Delhi and neighbouring townships and areas spreading into other States, including Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Sahara Samay NCR, slated to formally go on air towards month-end, is presently running test signals.
Interestingly, senior print media journalist and former metro chief of Times of India’s Delhi edition, Sanjay Kaw will be assisting Singh. Earleir, Kaw, who has had a successful stint as a print journalist, was the editorial head of Sahara Samay NCR.
Contacted by Indiantelevision.com, senior executives of Sahara India Media & Entertainment (SIME) confirmed the changes, adding that another round of reshuffle would be undertaken towards June end with the addition of new personnel in various divisions of the TV new venture.
Ajay Pandey, who was earlier looking after the national news channel, will now be assisting SIME senior vice-prseident DK Pandey in bringing about a synergy in all the activities of the news channels from distribution to marketing to editorial inputs.
DK Pandey was roped in early this year from Reliance’s telecom division. He has also done a stint at Zee Telefilms.
Apart from few other changes, Prakash Nanda, a senior staffer with Sahara’s English weekly has been brought into the TV news division to handle diplomatic and strategic affairs coverage. Nanda, like Kaw,is also a former Times of India journalist.
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.
