For many, it would be the end of an era. Times Television Network is losing the Editor-in-Chief of its flagship news and business news channels Times Now and ET Now – Arnab Goswami – ending a 10-year relationship. Goswami’s destination next is still unclear but it is understood that he would be donning the entrepreneurial hat in his next avatar to launch a television network.
Times Television Network is still in the process of announcing Goswami’s replacement. While BW Businessworld did not get any official comments at the time of filing the report, the development has been confirmed by a very senior company resource.
With this move, Goswami is stepping in the footprints of the likes of Dr Prannoy Roy and Rajat Sharma, both of whom have built their media businesses from ground up. The key difference is that Goswami is competing in an age where digital platforms are both a boon and a challenge for media entrepreneurs.
Goswami, who was with NDTV prior to launching Times Group’s English news channel in 2006, has been not only among the founding team members of the channel but is also credited for catapulting Times Now to its numero uno position in the English news genre. Following this success, in 2015, Time Group had added the charge of ET Now too under Goswami’s charge.
Industry observers have continually pointed towards the lack of differentiation in the English news genre but Times Now has stood apart among its peer, courtesy the distinct news style and presentation that Goswami brought to the table. Goswami has been among the media leaders that have not shied away in confessing to disruption by challenging etiquettes or principles.
At a recent forum, Goswami was quoted on, “Facts are sacred but opinion is supreme, provided this opinion is based on facts and is not motivated, except for coming from the heart. Television news cannot be a Wikipedia of facts and people who believe that they are not expressing their opinion are lying.”
While Goswami’s news style has been consistent with this comment, in some of his industry discussions, his call for reinventing his method was also apparent.
Goswami made a call for the future of news by laying down some changes that he believes will evolve the Indian news scenario to a place where India will be a hub for global news, and where money will stop being the driving power of the news that will connect with the new India’s audiences – a large section of whom are Millennials.
Though this gives inkling on what his next plans and his content strategy would look like, more details are expected on this later this week.
Before joining NDTV in 1995 Arnab Goswami started his career in The Telegraph in Kolkata. He ended a 11-year stint with NDTV before heading to Times Group. At Times Now, as the Editor-in-Chief of the channel, he was among the leading news anchors of the channel, with his show The Newshour being among the constant top ranked shows across news channels in India.
