New Delhi: Network18 has announced a leadership reshuffle that places a younger generation of executives at the centre of its next phase of growth, following the departure of Avinash Kaul after a 12-year stint with the company.
In an internal communication to employees, Network18 Managing Director Rahul Joshi said Kaul has decided to move on to pursue other professional and personal goals. Joshi described Kaul as an integral part of the Network18 journey, noting that he joined the company at a pivotal point during its transition in 2014 and went on to scale the television business through strategic thinking, data-led decision-making and a deep understanding of the news media landscape.
While acknowledging Kaul’s contribution to the broadcast business, Joshi used the occasion to underline the emergence of what he called Network18’s “young and restless leadership team”, saying the group had already taken charge in recent months and proved its capabilities under adverse circumstances.
The internal note signals that, rather than appointing a single direct replacement, Network18 is distributing responsibilities across a set of leaders who will now work more closely with Joshi and the senior management team as the company sharpens its focus across linear television, digital, social and connected TV platforms.
Going forward, Smriti Mehra, S Shivakumar and Mitul Sangani will work directly with Joshi, continuing an arrangement that had already been in place through the fourth quarter. Ganesh Iyer and Abhinay Chauhan will continue to work with him as before. Joshi said these younger leaders are being entrusted with additional responsibilities to help drive the company forward across multiple platforms and formats.
As part of the new structure, Prabhat Chatterjee, Business Head-Forbes, and Arun Thapar, President-Content & Communication for AETN-18, will report to Smriti Mehra. Both executives are expected to help drive revenue growth, marketing and product initiatives. Mallika Nath Handa will also report to Mehra and will take charge of building and scaling special projects, including new shows and non-linear properties. In a related finance reporting change, Jayesh Gokalgandhi, CFO for AETN18, will now report to Ramesh Damani.
Mitul Sangani will take on a wider role in the Indian language cluster, with Sidharth Newatia, CRO-ILC, reporting to him to scale reach and revenue growth across Hindi and regional language markets. The mandate carries a particular emphasis on deeper expansion into Tier-II and Tier-III markets. Pankaj Soni, Head of Marketing–ILC, will also report to Sangani, while continuing to work functionally with Ganesh Iyer.
In another strategic move, the branded content business of Moneycontrol is being consolidated with News18 Studio. Don Zarrar will now work with S Shivakumar in the News18 Studio business, while continuing to lead his existing Studio and Focus teams at Moneycontrol. The move suggests a tighter integration of branded content capabilities across the network’s premium digital and studio-led offerings.
Pranav Bakshi has been assigned additional responsibility for the international business, alongside his existing role in driving growth in Connected TV and social platforms. Naveen Mathur, Head of Revenue Management for the international business, will now report to Bakshi, who in turn will continue to report to Puneet Singhvi.
The restructuring also includes changes in technology and operations reporting. Rajesh Sharma, Head of Broadcast Technology & IT, Rahul Singh, Head of Events & Technical Operations, and Bhupender Bhardwaj, Head of IT Security, will now report to Puneet Singhvi.
On the sales and planning side, Darshil Parekh, Head-Sales Strategy, Planning & Operations, will work directly with both Ramesh Damani and Rahul Joshi. Stanley Cyril, who manages Digital Sales Operations, will report to Parekh. Joshi said Parekh will work closely with CEOs and business heads to enable greater collaboration and integration across the organisation.
In the research and analytics function, Jitamitra Mohanty will now work with Santosh Menon. Mohanty, who leads Network18’s viewer and audience-linked research and analytics vertical, is expected to translate data on reach and engagement into actionable insights that can inform content strategy, product innovation and long-term viewership growth.
The tone of the communication suggests that Network18 is using this transition not merely as a leadership change, but as an opportunity to accelerate a more integrated operating model across broadcast and digital businesses. The emphasis on social, digital, CTV, regional expansion, branded content integration and analytics-led decision-making points to a structure designed to respond to changing audience behaviour and platform convergence.
Joshi said the team had already “hit the ground running” over the past few months and expressed confidence that the next generation of leaders would help the company continue to outperform peers. He also said he hoped the team would build a company defined by excellence, innovation, teamwork and empathy in an AI-driven age.
With the latest rejig, Network18 appears to be betting on a distributed leadership model led by younger executives with cross-platform responsibilities, even as it marks the exit of one of its long-serving broadcast leaders.
