Editorji of the masses – Vikram Chandra

Journalist, Author and Entrepreneur, these words define Vikram Chandra who has been part of the mainstream media for over three decades now.

Chandra’s reputation as a journalist was built while covering terrorism in Kashmir when he began his career in television journalism in 1991, working with a television news magazine called Newstrack. This was a period when very few journalists dared to report from the valley and Chandra’s reportage helped him get into the spotlight.

After three years into his first job, Chandra moved to NDTV in May 1994, a stint that would last for over two decades.

At NDTV, his focus again shifted to covering Kashmir. Interestingly, he was in Charari Sharief prior to terrorists burning the entire town in 1995. In 1999, he reported on the Kargil War too.

During his  years at NDTV, he worked on the prime time shows 9 O'Clock News and The Big Fight.  Later he co-hosted the show ‘Gadget Guru' with Rajiv Makhni and also hosted shows like Cleanathon, Greenathon and Save our Tigers.  

In 2000 Chandra was instrumental in setting up NDTV.com.  In 2007, he was named CEO of NDTV Networks, and in 2011 he was named as the CEO of the NDTV Group. 

After 22 years at NDTV, Chandra stepped down in 2016.

Chandra launched Editor Ji in 2018, an AI-based news platform, which offers free, short, and customised video newscasts to transform video news through innovation in user experience, using artificial intelligence. He pitched his app as an alternative to both TV news and social media.

“For videos, people are going to social media, which is struggling with fake news and is also an ideological echo chamber. There is a need to give users unadulterated news,” Chandra said on the launch of the venture.

HT Media Ltd and Bharti Airtel Ltd were early investors in Editorji with close to 5% and 8% stake in the company respectively. In July 2020, Kolkata-based RP Sanjiv Goenka Group (RPSG) acquired a 51% stake in Editorji Technologies.

In December 2022, e4m broke the news of WION and Vikram Chandra coming together to present two weekly news shows - 'The India Story' and 'This World'.

"I have been away from TV news for several years now, building within Editorji the technologies that I feel can transform video news and information. I had no intention of returning to the noise and din of news programmes dominated by domestic politics. But WION is different. It is the only true international channel out of India – and it has tremendous reach across the world. I look forward to placing 'The India Story' on WION and working with their talented team to make 'This World' a "must-watch" weekly show on global events” said Chandra on his comeback to News TV.

As an author, Chandra's first work of fiction, the thriller The Srinagar Conspiracy, was published in 2000 and became a bestseller. The book was notable for its combination of setting the action in Kashmir, a place in which Chandra had become familiar through his journalism.

Chandra is  an alumnus of The Doon School, where he was the editor of The Doon School Weekly. After his schooling, Chandra attended St. Stephen's College, Delhi and received a bachelor's degree in Economics. He later studied at Oxford on an Inlaks Scholarship.He has also done a three-month course in mass media at Stanford University.

(Our New Series-HEADLINE MAKERS profiles the superstars of the newsroom, the women and men who have worked their way to the top and command influence that shapes the contours of daily public discourse.)