News Broadcasting
Deccan Herald launches news app
Deccan Herald, the Bengaluru-based media title, has announced the launch of its news App for Android and iOS mobile devices. This is another step in the revamp of the product portfolio at the Printers Mysore, the company that owns Deccan Herald and Kannada title Prajavani. Last August, it launched a redesigned version of the DH newspaper, and the website deccanherald.com has seen traffic surge after a series of content and product initiatives.
The new DH app brings you breaking news, analysis and opinion, across text, video and audio, and also features new formats, justifying the tag line “One News App. Many Experiences”.
“Our new DH app is everything a modern news app should be: It presents news elegantly across formats, and in new ways designed to keep younger consumers engaged. What hasn’t changed, of course, is the high-quality journalism it draws on, and our belief that the reader is at the centre of everything we do: In fact, the way the app works, it will only increase the reader’s bond with us,” says Sitaraman Shankar, Acting CEO, The Printers Mysore, and Editor, Deccan Herald.
Some of the key features of the new app are:
My News: A home for personalised news. You can tailor your news feed depending on your preferences and reading habits.
What’s Brewing: Catch the news before it becomes news. Read up on context and analysis ahead of a big news event, and even sign up for notifications for when that piece of news actually comes to pass.
News Shots: Want to read a short summary before jumping into the details of the news? We offer a snippety news article in less than 70 words for those addicted to short formats.
Highlights: Consume news insta style. If you love Instagram and Facebook stories, you can now stay updated with visual-led articles.
“A lot of ideation and research has gone behind making this app. Digital news consumption is taking new forms regularly and we have built the app on many of these new facets to give our users a richer & wholesome user experience added with a touch of News personalization. What we will learn from the app will help to expand these user experiences to our other digital assets. ” says Arpan Chatterjee, COO – Digital, The Printers Mysore.
Design house ThinkDesign carried out user research and worked closely with Deccan Herald to arrive at an eye-catching design for the app, while app development partner Webdunia was responsible for implementation.
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.
