Media Movement

Amit Baruah, Political correspondent from HT has joined as head of BBC Hindi News Service

Aniruddh Laskar, has moved from Business Standard to Mint

Anish Gangar, has left ComputerActive and has moved to Techticherblog

Archna Shukla, has moved from HT Mint to Indian Express, where she will be in charge of the upcoming marketing/ advertising supplement

Archana Shukla, earlier with DNA Money, has joined NDTV Profit as Special Correspondent and will be covering Shipping, Logistics and Pharma

Arcopol Chaudhari, who had left DNA to join a PR agency is now back in journalism

Bikram Vohra, has joined Khaleej Times as Senior Editorial Advisor

Hafiz Rahman, Producer & Anchor News 24 has quit and joined the India News as Senior Producer & Senior News Anchor.

Jasmine Desai, has moved from Biztech2.com

Jayata Sharma, has moved from Infomedia 18 and has joined Netscribes, where she will be handling 2 magazines, Retail Biz and The Machinist

John Samuel Raja D, Deputy Economic Affairs Editor Business Standard has moved to Outlook Business

Kailash Saxena, (covered markets, commodities and aviation) from zee business has moved to Tickerplant in Hyderabad

Kritika Suneja, from Business Standard has moved to DNA, where she will cover IT, Higher Education etc.

KJ Bennychan, Deputy Editor, Pitch Magazine has resigned

Madhusudan Anand, COB, Navbharat Times, Delhi, has moved to Naidunia as its national editor

Monika Halan, has joined HT Mint as Consulting Editor from Outlook Money. Halan has had stints with Business Today and The Economic Times. She later went on to join The Indian Express group as its Consulting Editor and continued to write a weekly column for the publication before authoring a book, ‘Seven Steps to Financial Planning’. She also anchors a show called ‘30 Minutes to Wealth’ on NDTV Profit.

N Shatrujeet, has resigned from The Economic Times

Nabeel Mohideen, India bureau chief of Bloomberg, has moved to HT Media’s business daily Mint as senior editor. Mohideen has worked at the wire service for nine years, prior to which, he has been at Business Standard, Business World, CNBC TV 18,  Sunday Observer, and The Times of India. At Mint, Mohideen will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the paper and heads of the desk, the rewrite desk as well as the design department will report to him. Mohideen will report to Sukumar and will be part of the paper’s editorial leadership team

Neeraj Thakur, from Business Standard has moved to DNA, where he will cover Energy, Power, Petroleum and Gas

P. Mohan Das, (COB- Business)- UNI Delhi has retired

Pierre Fitter, from Business World has moved to NewsX. At NewX he will cover environment, clean technology and politics.

Pradeep Kashyap, is the new COB of UNI, Delhi

Priyanka Vyas, special correspondent with HBL, has quit to pursue further studies. She was associated with the infrastructure beat.

Promit Mukherjee, earlier with DNA Money has joined NDTV Profit as Special Correspondent. He will be covering –Power, Oil and Gas.

R. K Singh, is the new COB, Navbaharat Times, Delhi

Radhika Chaturvedi, News Anchor, Star News has quit.

Rajneesh Kumar, Assignment Head News X has quit and joined the IBN 7 as a Deputy Executive Producer.

Saikat Das, of ET online has joined Ticker Plant. Initially he would be covering the bond and forex and later might cover equity markets.

Sanjay Singh, is the new Resident Editor of NewsX in Mumbai. Prior to this Singh was Senior Editor, IBN7

Sanjaya Baru, former media advisor to PM joins Business Standard as its Editor. He will report to TN Ninan, Editor-in-Chief

Santosh Tiwari, Head – Business Desk at News 24 has quit.

Shobha Mathur, from New Indian Express (Chennai) has also moved on

Shashi Shekhar, President -News, Amar Ujala moves to Hindustan (the Hindi daily from HT stable) as Editor-in-chief. Shekhar brings with him 29 years’ experience in journalism, of which 25 years have been as an editor. He has been associated with Amar Ujala since 2002, when he joined the paper as Group Editor. In his seven-year stint at Amar Ujala, Shekhar launched six new editions and made it among the top three most read news papers in the country.

Siddharth Philip, has resigned from Business India

Swati Bharadwaj, Asst Business Editor, Times of India Ahmedabad, Gujarat has been shifted to TOI Hyderabad

Varun Aggarwal, Delhi correspondent for Express Computers has joined CRN magazine

Varinder Walia, is the new Editor of Punjabi Tribune. Walia was a special correspondent in Amritsar for The Tribune. He has also authored two books of short stories in Punjabi – ‘Khabarnama’ in 1983 and ‘Rukhan Di Dastan’ (meaning ‘Tale of Trees’) in 2007.

VK Shashikumar, has joined NewsX as Head of Special Investigations and News Programming from CNN-IBN

Interview with Arcopol Chaudhuri

Poornima Iyer brings to us, an exclusive interview with Arcopol Chaudhuri, an ex-journo,

who recently switched over to PR, shares is experience with the PR industry, while he was

on the other side of the table and what he expects when he has decided to change roles

Poornima Iyer brings to us, an exclusive interview with Arcopol Chaudhuri, an ex-journo,  who recently switched over to PR, shares is experience with the PR industry, while he was on the other side of the table and what he expects when he has decided to change roles

1. What was your perception about PR (industry & professionals) during your tenure as a journalist?

I started off in journalism thinking PR folks are partners in the news business. I’d reply to press releases with a ‘Thank you’. But as soon as I joined DNA, from partners most of them turned into annoying pests. Maybe because I cover business news, people were too pushy about their clients. Eventually, I found a balance in my understanding of them and made some great friends, came across awesome pitch notes and some neatly done media interactions. So my perception is, that the PR industry has merit. But only some. What’s spoiling the show is all these consultancies sprouting from every corner, who have absolutely no idea what to do with their clients, have no sense of strategy, and expect any random coverage to be equivalent to PR. Get a life!

2. Why the decision to move over to PR? does this decision bring about any change in your perception towards PR as an industry and the professionals?

1. It was never a decision to move into PR. It was more a decision to join Lintas. And it was the inclination to work on a certain clients I’d wanted to work on, for a long time.

2. My perception about PR changed slowly. We’re in interesting times, wherein information – malicious or not – is being withheld by companies in the pretext of corporate communications/PR. Therefore, its a powerful profession, wherein PR literally gets to play God, unless of course, media stumbles upon the news itself. But sure, PR makes a difference to brands in the most credible way possible, and I want to be a part of the process.

3. Any apprehensions / anxieties that you would like to share

I’ve been told that the first 2 months will be difficult settling in. I’m prepared for it. I have faith and immense respect for the organization I’m joining. My aim will be to make myself as useful as possible to the team in the shortest possible time, and improvise myself over a sustained duration.

4. What are your expectations from the new job that you look forward to take up?

I expect it to be challenging. Journalism is much more of a one-man show (at least print journalism is). PR is a thankless job, involves team-work, tests our people skills, reasoning and negotiation abilities. I expect the new job to show me how good/bad I am at all this, and help me get better.

5. Journalism must have given you a sense of freedom (getting to be expressive & critical) which PR professionals seldom get to be, how do you plan to cope with this loss of freedom to express.

I never entered journalism to be expressive / critical. So there’s no loss of freedom to express. As journalists, we’re expected to report in a fair manner. But all that’s changing now. And most business journalists would agree. The recession has blurred all lines between editorial, ad sales and marketing divisions in a newspaper. You’d be a fool to believe everything written in a newspaper today as fair reporting. Competition is driving editors crazy. I wouldn’t have wanted to be part of such propaganda while wearing the shoes of a journalist. Not what I’d set out for.

6. What are the changes you would want to bring about in the way PR agencies / advisories work? Would you make an effort to ensure that these are implemented in your new work place?

If PR firms are really serious about their clients, they’d better invest in training the folks on the account suitably. Most of the times, the person calling has zilch knowledge about the sector his client operates in, about what beats the journo covers. Account executives must read, read, read as much as they can.

Also media rounds are useless, if you don’t have an agenda. Journos want to meet PR folks waiting at the reception only if they have 1-2 story ideas to discuss. Why come all the way, just to ask, “What stories are you working on?” “Ohh…you’ve become thin!” “What’s your sun-sign?” “Kuch kar do yaar..! Client sar pe baitha hai.” I believe PR folks should restrain themselves from such things and talk sense when they are taking some journalist’s valuable time.

Media Movements

Anish Gangar, has left ComputerActive and has moved to Techticherblog

Varun Aggarwal has moved from Express Computer

Arcopol Chaudhari who was handling Advertising & Marketing beat in DNA has moved to join a PR Agency

Siddharth Philip has moved from Business India

Pierre Fitter from Business World has moved to NewsX. At NewX she will cover environment, clean technology and politics.

N Shatrujeet has moved from The Economic Times

Shobha Mathur from New Indian Express (Chennai) has also moved on.

Jasmine Desai has moved from Biztech2.com

P. Mohan Das (COB- Business)- UNI Delhi has retired, Pradeep Kashyap is the new COB

Aniruddh Laskar has moved from Business Standard to Mint

Jayata Sharma, has moved from Infomedia 18 and has joined Netscribes, where she will be handling 2 magazines, Retail Biz and The Machinist.

Anish Gangar, has left ComputerActive and has moved to Techticherblog

Varun Aggarwal has moved from Express Computer

Arcopol Chaudhari who was handling Advertising & Marketing beat in DNA has moved to join a PR Agency

Siddharth Philip has moved from Business India

Pierre Fitter from Business World has moved to NewsX. At NewX she will cover environment, clean technology and politics.

N Shatrujeet has moved from The Economic Times

Shobha Mathur from New Indian Express (Chennai) has also moved on.

Jasmine Desai has moved from Biztech2.com

P. Mohan Das (COB- Business)- UNI Delhi has retired, Pradeep Kashyap is the new COB

Aniruddh Laskar has moved from Business Standard to Mint

Jayata Sharma, has moved from Infomedia 18 and has joined Netscribes, where she will be handling 2 magazines, Retail Biz and The Machinist.