Sahara Samay news ops undergoes another churn

Sahara Samay news ops undergoes another churn

MUMBAI: Sahara group's print and TV news operations are witnessing another round of churn with some senior people having either left or on the verge of exiting.
For starters, there seems to be a purge going on in Sahara Samay TV news operations where people, who were brought in last year by former head of news operations Ambikanand Sahay, feeling the heat.
According to information available with Indiantelevision.com, industry doyen DK Pandey, brought in to oversee distributions and other aspects of the Sahara news channels in the capacity of senior vice-president, has resigned.    
While confirming the development, a senior executive of Sahara Samay, however, said "not much should be read in such resignations."
Pandey's resonsibilities will now be overseen by C B Singh who, along with Sahara Samay VP Prabhat Dabral and Sahara loyalist Govind Dikshit, forms the trio presently managing the group's news activities.
Then Manish Dubey, who had joined Sahara Samay from Aaj Tak as the editorial head of the Mumbai-specific channel, left the organisation some time back. Ditto for the Delhi-based executive producer Manoj Singh.
It is also being said that some more people, both from the TV and print news operations, are likely to exit Sahara's news operations.
A senior executive in the organization told Indiantelevision.com, "As the media landscape changes, Sahara cannot remain insulated from such changes. We here are bringing about a restructuring in the news operations to maximise yield from existing manpower."
But with the sale of Air Sahara to Jet Airlines, speculation has gained strength within the diversified Sahara group that flab is being cut from various businesses to make them attractive to prospective investors.