News Broadcasting
Wenner Media acquires Disney’s 50% stake in ‘Us Weekly’
MUMBAI: Wenner Media has acquired Disney’s 50 per cent stake in Us Weekly LLC, which publishes Us Weekly, and now once again owns the magazine in its entirety.
Disney had invested in Us Weekly and formed the 50/50 Us Weekly LLC joint venture with Wenner Media in February 2001, advancing Us Weekly’s transition to the weekly frequency. Under the joint venture, which was managed by Wenner Media, Us Weekly revamped its format, spearheading the evolution of the celebrity magazine genre, and doubled circulation from 850,000 to 1.75 million, making it one of the fastest growing titles in the publishing industry. During that same period, advertising pages also doubled.
For the first six months of this year, Us Weekly’s circulation grew by seven per cent (from H1 2005), with newsstand sales surpassing the one million mark for the first time. For the same period, ad pages grew by four per cent to 912 pages.
Wenner Media chairman Jann Wenner said, “Disney has been a superb partner and we will miss them. I am deeply grateful for their vote of confidence in Us at a time when not everyone thought we had much of a future or there was a future in celebrity magazines.”
Disney CEO and president Robert Iger said, “Jann Wenner and his team have been great partners over the course of our involvement with Us Weekly. They have managed this business extremely well and we wish them continued success.”
Launched as a bi-monthly publication in 1977, Us Weekly was acquired by Wenner Media in 1986. The magazine moved from a monthly to a weekly format in March 2000. Privately held Wenner Media also owns and publishes Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal.
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.
