Mukesh Ambani moves to integrate Network18 newsroom with Jio

The billionaire industrialist has made some key appointments at Network 18 to give wings to his dream of an integrated mobile and TV news room...

The country’s richest man Mukesh Ambani is putting the building blocks in place for an integrated mobile and television newsroom as he readies the roll out of his most ambitious venture to date, Reliance Jio. Ambani has a three-pronged strategy for his foray into fourth generation (4G) telecom services — broadband networks, affordable smartphones and the availability of rich content and applications.

As part of this move to integrate mobile and TV news — something he mentioned in this year’s annual general meeting (AGM) speech as well — Ambani has brought on board Rahul Joshi, editorial director of The Economic Times, business daily of Network18’s rival Bennett Coleman & Company Ltd (BCCL).

 

An announcement was made on Thursday by Network18’s Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) A P Parigi, also an ex-BCCL hand who came on board this January, putting speculation to rest about Joshi’s decision to move on. The note put out by Parigi on Thursday said Joshi would be the CEO News and Group Editor-in-Chief at Network18.

News website Firstpost.com, part of Network18, also has new hands to steer it, including veteran journalist B V Rao, who takes over as editor, and Ajay Singh, who is the new executive editor. These developments come as Firstpost’s incumbent editor-in-chief, R Jagannathan, is slated to retire in few months. Jagannathan’s deputy executive editor, Lakshmi Chaudhry, had moved on earlier, leaving the post vacant.

In his speech at the AGM this June, Ambani had said, “Jio is much more than telecom services. We had foreseen this development even when Jio was first conceptualised. We followed an integrated business strategy from the very beginning, and today Jio is capable of offering a unique combination of telecom, high-speed data, digital commerce, media and payment services.”

Apart from applications such as Jio Chat, which was launched this April, Ambani has been driving the content part through Network18, the media company he acquired along with its subsidiary TV18 Broadcast last year for Rs 4,000 crore. This deal remains the largest-ever transaction in the Indian media sector to date.

At the AGM, Ambani highlighted  how not only news, but also content from magazines would be available on the Jio platform, besides music, entertainment, photos, etc.