Business

Musical chairs in the media industry

Pakistan's media industry sees a game of musical chairs as senior journalists shift from one media house to the...

Special Correspondent September 24, 2010

The executive director News of the TV news and entertainment channel Aaj, Talat Hussain – who also hosts their flagship current affairs show -- is reported to have left the channel for a rival - the once-English now-Urdu channel, DawnNews. Changing the language, however, has not helped much -- at least not yet. A channel that once prided in being the only English-language news channel in Pakistan now finds itself near the bottom of the television audience viewership ratings amongst national Urdu channels.

Meanwhile, The Express Tribune has also learned that Director News Dunya TV Fahad Husain has already been lined up to fill Talat’s shoes. Fahad Hussain was for several years the Director News at Express News (a sister concern of The Express Tribune) before his departure earlier this year to news channel Dunya. An anonymous source claims that he has faced difficulty working with the owner and also because he wasn't given a primetime television slot.

More changes can only be on the horizon as major financial groups, including some of the richest people in the country, have entered the media industry. Mian Mansha, reputed to be Pakistan’s richest individual, is said to have bought a controlling share of Arif Nizami’s latest media offering, a daily general-interest paper called The Pakistan Today, which is due to launch next month.

Not to be left of out this media grab, ARY earlier this week, hired Mahmood Shaam, who had previously been the editor of daily Jang for almost 45 years. ARY also managed to get Geo News’ popular TV anchors Aamir Liaquat and Shahid Masood in a new bid to boost its news ratings.

COMMENTS (22)

Zahid Hussain | 14 years ago | Reply One thing that the media does not reflect is the fact that CONTENT IS THE KING. What media need is Innovative Content Engineering Expertise and Marketing Approach to compete and survive. The depth of a media owner's pocket may keep him in the competition for sure but does not provide guarantee long term viability and profitability due to fragmentation and shrinking add revenue share. Those who have a long experince of wroking with the top management and founders of national and international media titles of repute know it well that the editorial and advertising staff does not receive creative input and inspiration from those who head them. The owners of major media groups have made visible blunders in strategic human resource management policies which an outsider can very easily point out after having a casual look at the contents of the November-December issue of Aurora! The owners have become Ruppert Murdochs and Ted Turners by closing their doors, eyes and ears to any professional advice that comes from outside concerned professionals with outstanding credentials. RM and TT at least keep an eye on their balance sheets to see who is doing what but it appears that our media owners do not even carefully look at their balance sheets also!

Jamil Uddin | 14 years ago | Reply

Was this news verified??

Talat is still with Aaj TV. Are you, express tribune, going to apologize????

VIEW MORE COMMENTS

aNu | 14 years ago | Reply They are professional they have right to change the job but they have to illustrate just reality good and bad things both because they are the voice of our country.........

sidrah | 14 years ago | Reply seriously tribune.....get a life!!!!!!!

Aisha Randhawa | 14 years ago | Reply This inter-media exchange is also the change in loyalties and the power over the other to turn away their viewership. As per latest, very recently SAMAA hired a lot of anchors from GEO and News1, altering the interest of the opponent's through fan following of news anchor person's. This radical change is good but in the long run it would end up in chaos and confusion for the audiences ! .

HAMID SULTAN DAWOODI | 14 years ago | Reply BRAND POWER IS THE THE VOICE OF TODAY In my opinion, it is right of a person to foresee his life. Before the arrival of electronic media in Pakistan the media persons were financially poor and rulers utilized them for their specific needs. The more financially media personals would be strong their ego, consciousness, ethics, morals, will enable them to undertook their activity with BOLDNESS fit for people not for MASTER'S.

myk | 14 years ago | Reply yes i do agree with usman bashir. can some one tell me that , abass ather,javed ch,haroon ur rashid(returned home later)qadir hassan,hameed akhater,tahir sarwer mir act.........come from? all of tme come from various orgnizations ,even qatrena too. So it not fair that a chief editor or owner can have right to fire his worker and worker has not right to think about his miserable plight..I do think evey one has right to chose its way . so no need to take pain about them ,they are well educated and konw about all subsequences.

usman bashir | 14 years ago | Reply I dont get it what's express tribune (and express media group) is worried about, i am professional myself and has switched many companies and i am sure many of these commentators. So whats the hell, i feel some gelousy in the news content. why , every media group has a right to poach any one if they can affoard it , similarly , every person has a right to see if there is some thing viable option available to them, they have a right to attain this. These guys are all pro and thinking that they will change their atitude just because they are in a new company is not going to happen. As for As shahid masood is concern, everybody knows why he has been moving around because of the atitude he has against the govt and there is whole load of history behind it. I have read recently cafe piyala and i was sure that the writers behind that blog belong to Express news and today's news proved my assumptions.For God sake, create your credibility as a news paper not as tabloid.

Arsalan Mir | 14 years ago | Reply I am not sure how good is Dr. Shahid Masood doing at ARY now. From Ary>Geo>Ptv>Geo>Ary, surely he has lost the respect and credibility of many. A job switch is normal thing for professionals but in case of media persons it leaves their opinions non-credible. Nevertheless, Mr. Talat Hussain is still among the best of all lot, wish him good luck.

Masoom Malik | 14 years ago | Reply Its all about money.....the bosses are always winers'n subordinates are loosers. so what u say about owners ,y they hire them ?

Nasir Mahmood | 14 years ago | Reply I think if they are only going to the other News groups because of better Salary Package, it is fine. Or if they were having trouble saying their voice or any other trouble with the Media group. But if they have changed their loyalties according to the other Media group policies, then it is point to be noted. Then they can be biased in their field reporting. Some of them have been criticizing other Media Groups (including Media groups they have just joined) in the past and they have joined them.

Murad Khan | 14 years ago | Reply In Pakistan , this sort of things , confuse the viewers, slowly the anchor have been losing their , love intention , believe form viewers. for the solution tv Chanel newspaper should singed a contract with them. my good fried in every six month changes, its job in news media , and i often said to him,that i am fad up to see every six month a new office.in the reply he just show a smirking face to me. this kind of journalistic club make the journalism stranded verse, on the of fast track market , owners have losing their control over responsible and stranded journalism. the media is also a industry , but the keep it mind our people have expectation from media, they do not know that the media is also a industry, they think all the anchor talk for us. so please do not play with the hearts of innocent Pakistani . i love Pakistani people, who do not know where is shelter for him, and do not know where they can trust him, everyone should love them , and play a concrete role, now the time is not for vain word. thanks

Hina | 14 years ago | Reply At least check your facts before making such statements... all untrue and baseless except for the fact that Talat has joined Dawn TV.

Nayna | 14 years ago | Reply Kudos to Express Tribune for this initiative. Perhaps the next step can be replacing "Special Correspondent" with the author's name or is that too soon?

anwaarahmad | 14 years ago | Reply Only ARY is investing upon bad taste.

Bangash | 14 years ago | Reply i dont see the point here, people change jobs especially when industry is hot and better opportunities are available. Talat Hussain spent quite a few years in Aaj TV and although loyalty is part of good work ethic, better opportunities are difficult to pass up. Its only in a moribund economy that folks stay at their current jobs even though they may not be entirely happy with pay or working conditions.

Aftab Kenneth Wilson | 14 years ago | Reply So they will become "His Master's Voice". Any way Tribune, thumbs up to you and your policy to come out with what is true. You have also given ample space for the readers of your news papers to share their views on any news. This we only find in foreign news papers. You are doing wonderful job by inviting your readers to share their feeling on certain news of interest I hope it wont stop because this is a saner way to know the opinion of educated people..

HH | 14 years ago | Reply Lol....you havent even touched the real news yet...nadia khan has been fired from geo entertainment and shaista wahidi is replacing her!

Mohsin Hijazee | 14 years ago | Reply I love when tribune talks about other media groups openly. That's unprecedented in Pakistan. On the other hand, Jang group is loosing major workers. I suspect that the just-returned-speechy-kiddo might be behind all this raising friction or something like that.

Syed | 14 years ago | Reply a healthy sign and very normal thing when the market expands !

Aziz Hirani | 14 years ago | Reply Finally we have a paper/media house that is actually reporting on other media houses and about the media industry as a whole... way to go Tribune.. Hope we see more news like this one

shahid | 14 years ago | Reply yes they are professionals.you can make them write on order if you own them.

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