News Broadcasting
TV reporter killed while covering major fire in Delhi
NEW DELHI: Mediaperson Ajay Tiwari, 34, was killed when he was covering a major fire at a factory-cum-godown in Dabri in south west Delhi on Wednesday afternoon.
Tiwari who was working for Sahara Samay for the past four years, is survived by his wife and a three-year old son.
In a condolence message, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said in Tiwari’s death, journalism has lost a promising talent. Tiwari died in the line of his duty maintaining the highest tradition of television journalism, the Minister added.
Madan Mohan, a cameraman with India News who was standing close to Tiwari, suffered injuries on his hands in the incident.
According to police, firemen who were already at the spot to douse the blaze took Tiwari out of the debris.
The police said that Tiwari got trapped inside the debris of a portion of the factory wall that collapsed after a cylinder blast in the factory.
“Tiwari, the field reporter with Sahara Samay, was covering the event for the channel when debris fell from the first floor of the building due to a cylinder blast,” said a senior fire official.
“Both were rushed to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital where Tiwari succumbed to his injuries during treatment while Mohan is recuperating and is stated to be out of danger,” added the fire official.
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.
