MUMBAI: There’s change afoot at Television18 and Network18 following their acquisition by the Mukesh Ambani group last year. The companies saw a rash of exits close to it being taken over – and afterwards too - as executives long associated with Raghav Bahl’s team decided to move out.
But looking at the past few months, both the companies have been strengthening the senior management team. Amongst the standout hires who have come in since is Rahul Joshi as CEO (News) and editor-in-chief and he has followed up by building the team editorially with journalists and editors for the channels being roped in.
Another solid news industry resource recruited in May 2016 was Joy Chakraborthy, who came in as president revenue of TV18, allowing Joshi to concentrate more on management and editorial. Recently Joy was entrusted with further responsibility as CEO of Forbes India, thus consolidating television and the business magazine revenues under one head.
A 20 year old veteran of the media industry – with experience ranging from The Times of India group to Star India to Zee Entertainment to India Today – Joy is now building his team under him. He has brought in Priyanka Datta as executive vice president to head the English news cluster (CNBC-TV18, CNBC-TV18 Prime HD and CNN News18) and network sales head for north and south.
Another senior professional, Preeti Sahni has been appointed as vice-president to head sales for Forbes India and International business for English news channels of the network.
Says Joy: “I am pleased to welcome Priyanka and Preeti to the Network18 family. Both Priyanka and Preeti come with right learnings and experience to take on their respective mandates at Network18. Priyanka Datta comes with a well-rounded understanding of TV channels, having headed ad sales and brand solutions roles at Zee. Preeti Sahni comes with specialization in luxury and international sales, having worked on and headed senior roles with premium media brands in her earlier roles.”
Priyanka has around 20 years of experience with an exposure to sales, marketing, business management and P&L. and was last associated with Zee Entertainment for 14 years wherein she headed sales nationally for almost all channels of Zee Network as well as their Brand Solutions Cell. Her last assignment with Zee was that of Business Head of Zindagi and the FTA GEC channels.
Prior to joining Network18, Preeti was with BCCL as general manager handling the luxury and international businesses. Preeti has a vast professional repertoire in product management and sales, and is skilled in conceptual marketing and business development. Prior to BCCL, she has worked with brands like India Today, HT Media, Oracle and Scholastic.
