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Narendra Tripathi is back at Radio Mantra
Tripathi, who was earlier associated with NDTV Media, has been roped in as COO of the radio station by the Jagran Group
Narendra Tripathi, who was associated with NDTV Media as senior vice-president since March 2007, has decided to come back to Radio Mantra, the radio venture of the Jagran Group. He has been roped in as the chief operating officer. He assumed the new role effective from October 12.
Radio Mantra currently has eight stations across Jharkhand, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The company plans to scale up its operations.
Tripathi says, "Radio is growing at a very fast pace and hence it made sense to be a part of the set up. I also share a very good rapport with the group and they have some aggressive and exciting plans regarding the station, so I was all the more keen to join the group. We have some extremely solid plans for the group."
Tripathi was earlier associated with Radio Mantra in 2006-07 when the channel was in its launch phase.
Armed with a post graduate degree in economics, he started his career in 1989 as a management trainee with the TOI group and was with the group for seven years. He has also worked with the ABP Group and STAR India, where he handled Channel V as its regional head (Delhi and Kolkata). In 2000, he was with Indya.com. He was also head, marketing and sales at Red FM. During his stint with NDTV Media, he was part of the launch team of NDTV 24X7. A part of the start-up team of Channel 7 (of the Jagran group), after the merger with Network 18, Tripathi shifted to Radio Mantra (which was being launched then). He was also a part of the launch of NDTV Good Times.
Citing his biggest challenge so far, Tripathi says, "Indya.com was the most challenging phase as the dotcom industry was not prepared and no one knew about the industry. Therefore, telling and convincing the clients was a big task – you had to explain everything from scratch to the advertisers.
"Another one was the stint with Red FM. It was the starting phase of private FM in the country. None of the advertisers thought it would grow at the pace it grew. Somehow, I've been a part of the launches, which has been very exciting."
In an official communiqué, Rahul Gupta, director, Radio Mantra, says, "I am delighted to welcome Narendra back to the Jagran Group. I am sure that with his experience and in-depth knowledge of the media industry, Narendra will be an invaluable asset to our organisation. Radio Mantra currently enjoys the dominant position in every market it operates in. The challenge for us now is to scale-up the current operation and replicate our success in many more new stations. Narendra will spearhead this task of making our network bigger and better."