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 | 13 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 | 13 years ago | Reply
Was this news verified??
Talat is still with Aaj TV. Are you, express tribune, going to apologize????
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