Network18 announces key elevations and appointments

Media conglomerate Network18 announced important elevations and appointments within the group. The organizational changes are a move towards the new way in which the two arms of the news organization — TV and digital, will work in collaboration with each other. The changes, which come into effect immediately, are also a consequence of the dynamics of integration which is the future of news.

Smriti Mehra is being elevated as COO, Business News Cluster and will be responsible for the P&L of this cluster. She will also be responsible for the P&L of CNBC digital as well as Display and Focus revenue for her cluster. Sohan Singh will be responsible for the Display business of the Business News cluster as well as English News and will report to Smriti. Preeti Sahni has been elevated as COO-Forbes India with responsibility for its P&L.

In order to drive TV-Digital integration further, the group has mandated Azim Lalani, COO, Brand Solutions and Convergence, to take additional charge of branded content for CNN-News18.

The group is bolstering its government business team, which has been led by Amit Tripathi. Tripathi will continue to be responsible for Hindi regional and national channels. To give a fillip to digital and vernacular, Abhinay Chauhan has joined the group recently and will be responsible for government revenues for language channels, digital, Forbes and AETN18.

For the non-sales part of the Focus business, Siddharth Saini will be responsible for the English News, Business News and Forbes verticals as well as international business. To give additional thrust to the Hindi and Languages Focus business, the group has appointed Sujeet Mishra, who has joined from the Zee group. Mishra will be responsible for non-sales backend of Focus for the Hindi and Language verticals notably News18 India.

The above will report to Avinash Kaul for TV news with a direct line to Puneet Singhvi for the Digital business of the group.