#MediaMoves

After a long stint as Freelance Writer cum Editor, Sneha Bhattacharjee now joins Times NIE, the school edition of The Times of India. She had her previous innings with The Times of India as Copy Editor and later as Senior Copy Editor, Techcrusher.in as Freelance Writer, Aptara Group as Content Writer, and Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd. as Sub Editor. New Delhi based blogger at ‘Motherhood caught unawares’ and ‘Indelible Musings‘ and can be reached @IndelibleMusing.

» Hardeep Dugal returns to India Today TV as Principal Correspondent, saying goodbye to Bloomberg TV India. Her previous stint with India Today was in 2012 as Associate Producer cum Correspondent. She was earlier also associated with NewsX as Assistant Producer cum Correspondent, and Times Now as Senior Reporter. Connect with this Mumbaikar @hardeepdugal.

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Photoshopping For Trouble

Known for their often controversial covers, India Today managed to cross Delhi CM Kejriwal and Majinder Singh Sirsa, general secretary of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee this time. Titled “AAP ki Lalkaar”, the cover featured Kejriwal’s face over a Nihang warrior representing AAP’s Punjab run. While Sirsa took offence over Kejriwal’s clean-shaven form in a traditional Sikh dress, the Delhi CM complained that his image was used without seeking his consent. » After Hizbul militant Burhan Wani was killed on July 8th, the J&K state government imposed a ban on news and entertainment channels to stop ‘dissemination of information’ that could provoke violence. Internet and mobile communication has also been severed. A week later, there have been reports of police raiding newspaper offices and seizing printing plates. Kashmir has had no news print from July 16th, local journalists have also been harassed. Editors Guild of India described the crackdown as “unwarranted muzzling of the media” in their statement issued on Sunday. » Bangalore based Dailyhunt, formerly Newshunt, acquired minority stake in local-language news portal OneIndia. This will help Dailyhunt generate multimedia content, especially short-format audio and video in local languages. Virendra Gupta, Founder & CEO Dailyhunt, will also join the board of OneIndia’s parent company Greynium Information Technologies. » Deloitte, in a report titled ‘Media and entertainment industry – India tax landscape’, terms the Indian media and entertainment industry as  a sunrise sector with rapid growth. The industry is expected to grow at CAGR of 13.98% till 2018. The report is also optimistic about GST, which is not far from reality, addressing most of the key challenges that the industry faces from a tax perspective such as cascading and dual taxation.

Wider Stronger Better

Furthering the News18 brand identity, Network18 is all set to launch three regional channels in June – in Assamese, Tamil, and Malayalam. Regional Business Head, ETV News Network, Mukund Setlur confirms that News18 is the brand they will be working on. » Good news for bongs, Tehelka Group to launch Tehelka Bangla news channel. The group CEO, Upendra Rai also confirmed that they will follow up with regional Hindi channels soon. » nexGTv, India’s largest subscription-led video entertainment app, now adds Bengali and Oriya channels to its kitty. With worldwide broadcast rights for Rupashi Bangla, Dhoom Music, News Time Bangla, and Alankar TV, nexGTv promises convenience to its expatriate audiences. » In light of the growing attacks on African nationals in the country, India Today attempts to uncover whether it’s focused racism or random coincidence being hyped. Meanwhile, Union Minister VK Singh was slammed by the Broadcast Editors Association (BEA) for his remarks terming the attacks as a ‘minor scuffle blown up by media’. » In protest of recent journo killings in central India, various journalist associations came out in front of the Guwahati Press Club on May 16th. Apart from demanding stringent action against the culprits, the demonstrators also sought special protection laws for working journalists from the Modi led Government. Meanwhile, recognizing the hardships faced by scribes in J&K, the Mehbooba Mufti government proposed a welfare fund with an initial corpus of 2 Cr for working and accredited journalists in the state. 

#MediaMoves

Congratulations to Manish Maheshwari for joining Web18 (Network 18 Group) as CEO. He was earlier the VP & Head at Flipkart, Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company, Assistant Manager (Asia) and later Manager at Procter & Gamble and Head of New Market Development at Intuit. Manish has been the Co-Founder and Managing Director at txtWeb – the world’s largest marketplace for text-based apps. He has also been awarded Scott Cook Innovation Award by Intuit (2012), mBillionth Award for South Asia by mBillionth Foundation (2012), and NASSCOM Technology Innovation Award (Runner-up) by NASSCOM (2013). Mumbai based Manish can be reached @manishm345. » Vinod Verma bid adieu to Amar Ujala and has become a Multimedia Journalist – Consultant/ Freelancer. His previous stints were with BBC India as Multimedia Journalist and with Deshbandhu newspaper since 1988 as Sub Editor, Chief Sub Editor, News Editor, Executive Editor, and later as Bureau Chief.  New Delhi based Vinod tweets @patrakarvinod. » Simar Singh joins India Today as Sub-Editor. She was earlier associated with Businessworld as Reporter and did her internship with The Hindu and India Today. New Delhi based Simar can be reached @simarsingh484

Don’t Parody Me : Swamy

Facebook took down two pages bearing the name of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday, March 23rd. The parody accounts were called “Unofficial: Subramaniam Swamy” & “Unofficial: Dr. Subramanian Swamy”, and run by an anonymous operator and the ShankhNaad website. In December 2014 Swamy had threatened Facebook with legal notice if they don’t delete the accounts. Facebook had also confirmed that they police any fake accounts and that Swamy has no official account on Facebook. » India Today is going to host the premiere of 3 minute short films portraying the expression of ‘India Tomorrow’. To be created individually by renowned directors Imtiaz Ali, Pradeep Sarkar, Rohan Sippy, Hansal Mehta and Meghna Gulzar, the films will reflect the present as well as provide the binocular view of the future conditions of India. They will be available on both TV and digital media. » President Pranab Mukherjee presented the Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and Padma Shri Awards 2016 to 56 personalities from many areas including art, science, social work, public affairs, and medicine, on 28 March 2016.  Held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the ceremony was also attended by PM Narendra Modi. Personalities like Rajinikanth, Anupam Kher, Priyanka Chopra, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Late. Dhirubhai Ambani among others were honored with the award. See More. » Havas Worldwide India has appointed Arindam Sengupta as President – West. Prior to this, Sengupta was working with Ogilvy & Mather at Mumbai. Having an experience of more than 18 years he has also worked with Lowe Lintas, DDB Mudra and TBWA in the past.

Flocking Together

India Today TV showcases town halls on Twitter. Town halls let twitter followers tweet questions to which the guests respond on the show.  Shah Rukh Khan and Kamal Hassan have already featured as guests, the third episode in the series featuring Sri Sri Ravi Shankar will be aired this week-end. The exclusive partnership will also extend to Aaj Tak for relevant guests. » Network18’s News18.com all set to woo Hindi speaking viewers in a brand new dynamic avatar. Rebranded as Pradesh18.com, the responsive website will be available in 5 regional languages. » Prasar Bharti and MIB seemed to be singing different tunes with regards to pushing the public broadcaster’s content directly from TV to mobile, and creating a technology “ecosystem” for the same. At an event where Prasar Bharti CEO Jawahar Sircar and MIB Special Secretary J S Mathur were both present, read what they had to say. » Janardhan Jadhav’s ‘Jai Bhim, Jai Bharat’, a Marathi play, received 19 cuts on the censor board’s chopping table. Depicting a fictional conversation between Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi, referencing Dalit deaths in Mumbai in 1997 and 2006, the play could “stoke controversy by hurting sentiments”, said Arun Nalwade, Chairman of the Board. » Time Inc. to provide a ‘Motto’ to young women. The magazine publisher launched a new website called ‘Motto’ which will advise young women about life, work and play. The website will include contributions from celebrities and original articles from the Time staff.

Art Today

India Today group on Thursday announced the first ‘India Today Art Awards’ in New Delhi, in partnership with the DLF Group, India Art Fair and EDC. The list of awardees includes prominent names like BN Goswamy (Art writer of the year), Roobina Karode (Curator of the year). See More. » BW Businessworld has been awarded with the Chanakya ‘Magazine of The Year Award’ for excelling in reporting & analysis and its path-breaking style. The award was presented during the 10th Global Communication Conclave of Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) – a national body of PR, media, advertising, and HR professionals, held recently in Kolkata. » The video sharing feature of Facebook, is turning out to be a serious competitor for YouTube. The social platform has announced that it recently hit 100 million hours of daily video watch-time in a day and has recorded 1.04 billion daily active users so far.