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Tag: DK Pandey

  • Sahara news rejigs personnel

    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.

  • DK Pandey to head Sahara news project

    MUMBAI: Sahara India Media & Entertainment (SIME) seems to be making a serious attempt at pulling up its socks and make a fight of a seemingly losing news battle.

    With a view to beef up the channel management of its news channels — five at the moment, including the national news channel — Sahara has roped in a media veteran in DK Pandey as senior vice-president.

    Pandey, whose appointment comes into effect from 28 January, will be overseeing the overall management of the existing and future news channels, apart from being the head of all Sahara media properties’ bureaux.

    He has also been named to undertake the areas of content pertaining to broadcast as well as the print medium.

    Pandey will be reporting to SIME senior vice president and former print medium journalist Ambikanand Sahay.

    Contacted by indiantelevision.com today, Sahay, who has had a long stint at The Times of India in various senior positions, says, “Mr Pandey is a seasoned professional who has the right sort of experience to undertake the mandate given to him.”

    Sahay pointed out that all the bureaux of Sahara properties — both TV and print — have now been merged to bring in a synergy. This also means that all channel and bureau heads will be reporting to Pandey.

    Pandey is an alumina of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. His association with media companies includes heavyweights like Times of India, Zee Telefilms (where he headed MSO Siti Cable at one time) and Reliance Infocomm. At Reliance, Pandey spent spent several years and is considered to have been part of the core team that set up Reliance Infocomm.

    The appointment of Pandey is significant as it points to the renewed efforts being put in to beef up content and other aspects of marketing and distribution. Recently, as reported by indiantelevision.com, SIME got itself a senior distribution professional, Tapas Roy, from Siti Cable.

    Roy had been recruited to look after the north and eastern markets, but after the departure of Mohan Raj, who looked after the western and southern markets, Roy has been named the national distribution head for all Sahara channels, including the entertainment one.