WION and Zee Business’ CBO Madhu Soman moves on

The Chief Business Officer of WION and Zee Business Madhu Soman is moving on from the organisation after a stint of about one and a half years. exchange4media was the first to report Soman’s joining at WION and Zee business on August 1, 2022.

In a text message to some of his colleagues, Madhu Soman said, "Peepulz, my journey with WION and Zee Business is winding down this month. Not sure if I will be coming to the office on a daily basis from next week. I'm leaving a better person than when I came, and that's because of you. Thanks for everything. Wishing you all the very best. Regards, Madhu."

Soman was brought in by the Zee group to drive content and commercial strategy for both WION and Zee Business. While Zee Business, thanks to Anil Singhvi's editorial leadership, maintained its lead, WION reportedly witnessed a decline in both revenue and viewership. Earlier, Sudhir Chaudhary led Zee News and WION as Group CEO & Editor-in-Chief and the two verticals performed well both in terms of viewership and revenues. 

Soman has been working in the broadcast and digital media for nearly 25 years now, dabbling with television news, new media and the convergence between text, photos and video on the World Wide Web.

Prior to joining WION and Zee Business, Soman was associated with Bloomberg as Head of Broadcast Sales, Asia-Pacific for more than seven years. In this role, he was responsible for expanding Bloomberg's business with news broadcasters and publishers, setting up strategic partnerships and selling Bloomberg content. Before Bloomberg, he has worked with various media publications, including Thomson Reuters, ANI, Spectranet, in various editorial capacities

He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Radio and TV Journalism from IIMC and PGDIB in International Business from Symbiosis Pune. 

exchange4media reached out to Madhu Soman for comment on the story, but could not get one till the time of the filling of this story. The editorial team of exchange4media also reached out to Dr Subhash Chandra, Chairman of the Essel Group and Zee Media, but did not receive a response from him too.

Shortly after Madhu Soman's joining Wion, Palki Sharma Upadhyay left the company in September 2022. This was a big loss for WION as Palki had been associated with the company for five and a half years, building a name for WION and herself. Palki’s exit was seen as a big loss for WION as a brand. 

Palki’s exit was followed by the departure of Gunjan Taneja, VP and Head of Global Sales at WION, in November 2022. Taneja went on to join India Today Group in early 2023.

WION also brought in Vikram Chandra in November 2022. Chandra, who has his unique editorial style and presence, joined the channel as part of a licensing arrangement between WION and his company Editorji. However, this agreement has now ended and Chandra will no longer be hosting shows for WION.

With Mona Jain joining Zee News in March 2023 and the efforts of Zee News’ leadership to supplement WION's revenues, some positive results have been achieved in the past few months. Mona Jain and the leadership at Zee Media have been making efforts to grow WION through new initiatives and programming.

It is also to be noted that when Soman joined, he had a role in the editorial department as well, but in the latter part of 2023, Rabin Sharma was made the Managing Editor of WION and Madhu Soman’s role in the editorial was taken away. Rabin Sharma now leads the editorial product at WION.

In March 2023, Neha Khanna, who had joined WION as a prime- time anchor after Palki moving to News18, also left WION and joined News9. Khanna went on to become the prime-time face of News9 and Palki subsequently launched her own show called Vantage on News18 which has become very popular.

In 2021, MJ Akbar joined WION as an advisor in August 2021. In early 2021, Kartikeya Sharma too quit WION. 

WION was a brand that had been quite appreciated for its editorial product differentiation in the last few years. However, it seems to have lost that edge in the last 18 months. 

WION's unique content and coverage of Indian and global issues drew in viewers, and WION, in a very short span of time, made a mark globally too.

Hopefully, Dr Subhash Chandra’s vision for WION will be restored and WION will grow both in editorial and business terms. 

It is not yet clear if WION and Zee Media have hired a replacement for Madhu Soman. It is quite likely that in the interim, senior leadership from the Zee Media group will oversee WION and Zee Business on the business side.