Speakers | Digital Media India 2016
Digital Media India 2016
Speakers
Head of Editorial, Schibsted Media, Norway
Torry Pedersen is Head of Editorial and a member of Schibsted Media's top management team. He was previously the CEO/Editor in Chief of Verdens Gang AS, Norway’s most read news-site/newspaper. He began his career as a journalist in Fredrikstad Blad 1981, and has more than 35 years of experience in journalism and publishing.
Pedersen has been Managing Editor in VG, Editor in Chief/Publisher in VG Multimedia AS, CEO of Verdens Gang AS and from 2011, both CEO and Editor in Chief of Verdens Gang AS.
He was educated at the Norwegian School of Management (formerly the Bedriftsøkonomisk Institutt), Oslo 1979 and holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration. He has been awarded the "Chief Editor of the Year Award" in Norway, and during his time as Editor in Chief and CEO, Verdens Gang won several prizes.
VGs is among the most profitable news organisations in Europe and its news-sites on desktop, mobile, tablet and paper, have nearly 2.4 million daily readers.
Head of Digital - Bloomberg Media, Asia Pacific
Anjali Kapoor is Head of Digital, Asia for Bloomberg Media, where she is responsible for overseeing the execution of Bloomberg's digital strategy in the region. Her team of digital editors based in Hong Kong work to unify Bloomberg’s powerful existing media assets – including Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Businessweek, Bloomberg Markets and Pursuits magazines, Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg Radio and original digital video - to deliver relevant stories for Bloomberg.com. Previously, Anjali was Director, Digital News Strategy at The Globe and Mail in Canada where she oversaw the digital editorial strategy from Singapore for more than three years. Before moving to Singapore, she was the Managing Editor, Digital for the publication in Canada, where she worked with senior management to shift the traditional newsroom into a digital culture.
Media Consultant, UK
Subhajit Banerjee is a London-based journalist with over 15 years of experience as editor, reporter, producer and product manager in companies including the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and Conde Nast International. He is an expert in mobile and digital journalism and was the Guardian's first Mobile Editor. He is deeply interested in the impact of technology on journalism and the way it shapes new behaviours and products. Banerjee started his career in India with the Business Today magazine and also worked in newspapers such as the Calcutta Telegraph.
Director, Global Advisory - WAN-IFRA, Germany
Ben is a leading expert on digital media, and at WAN-IFRA he has the task of providing independent advice on digital strategy and organisational change. He will also lead the various WAN-IFRA initiatives to support the media industry in its transformation.
Previously, he was Shaw Media's Chief Digital Officer, and focused in driving digital revenue and audience for their digital products in the United States. Shaw was also the company’s CTO and previously IT Director. He oversaw the alignment of all technologies to Shaw’s audience and revenue growth strategies. He was also actively involved in optimizing Shaw Media's over 100 print and digital publication products and workflows. He is a licensed Apple iOS Developer and an Apple Certified Help Desk Specialist.
Director – Marketing & Electronic Media, The Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Company Limited, India
Joined The Mathrubhumi group in the year 2000, and have lent a dynamic orientation to this traditional institution. New editions were started from cities in India and abroad. After re-orienting the management outlook of the organisation, he has revamped the marketing activities and launched new verticals like fm radio, news and youth television and events and exhibitions. A crusader for green initiatives, he envisioned the award winning SEED program which is now active in 7000 schools in his home state.
Executive Director, The Indian Express Group.
Anant has been passionate about Journalism since an early age. He joined the Express Group in 2012 with two clear objectives: to grow Express’ legacy of hard-hitting independent journalism and its reach in both the print and digital medium. Digital quickly emerged as his pet project and over the past four and half years, the Group has grown from 4 million unique visitors to 52 million unique visitors a month.
Express’ history of investigative journalism continues with the Panama Papers, Isharat Jahan Witness Tutoring Tapes, Chattisgarh Election Fixing Tapes, Essar Leaks, Dadri Lynching and many more stories that have had a significant impact across the country. Its financial daily, The Financial Express, is also recognised for its pathbreaking reportage on the UB Holdings takeover and its consistent coverage on banking and infrastructure.
GQ magazine says Anant is one of India’s 50 most influential young Indians in 2016 and a 2014 profile in Forbes Magazine said Anant exudes the energy that he promises to infuse into the venerable Express brand. Over the past four and half years, indianexpress.com has emerged as India’s 2nd largest newspaper website and the Group one of the 4 largest digital news players. Even in regional media, Loksatta – one of Mumbai’s largest newspapers – has emerged the largest Marathi website in the country.
Before joining the Express, Anant worked at Spenta Multimedia and at Bloomberg’s commercial division at their London office. During his college days, he was a recognised blogger on The Huffington Post and continues to write in The Indian Express- his recent piece on Punjab drugs was quite popular.
He is a Dean's Scholar in print journalism from the Annenberg School of Journalism, Los Angeles, where for two years he was a teaching assistant for the course History of American News Media and for Entertainment News and Society. He is very passionate about aviation and motoring. He enjoys all kinds of live music, especially modern Jazz, and is a pretty terrible drummer himself.
Group Managing Director, The Manipal Group
Gautham Pai leads The Manipal Group (TMG) as its Promoter & Group Managing Director. The group publishes the Kannada language daily, Udayavani. Being the third-generation of the renowned ‘Pai family’ of Manipal, India, he took on the reins of business during his engineering education and believed in a well-charted course of modernisation, expansions, joint ventures and acquisitions in diverse segments. Leveraging on the Group’s Core Values, Gautham’s strategy is oriented towards building a sustainable high-growth, value creating & profitable organization.
Founding Editor, The Wire, India
Siddharth Varadarajan is a Founding Editor of The Wire. He was earlier the Editor of The Hindu and is a recipient of the Ramnath Goenka Award for Journalist of the Year. He has taught Economics at New York University and Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, besides working at the Times of India and the Centre for Public Affairs and Critical Theory, Shiv Nadar University.
Co-Founder & CEO, Quintillion Media, India
Ritu Kapur is the co-founder and CEO of The Quint and board member, World Editors Forum. She is also a Board Member at Oxford University’s prestigious Reuters Institute Of Journalism and the World Editor's Forum. She used to head Programming at History Channel, was Features Editor at CNN IBN, where she launched the popular CJ (Citizen Journalist) Show, among others. Kapur has been recognized by Outlook Business as "Woman of Worth 2017 - The Newsmaker".
Under her leadership, The Quint has grown by nearly 250% Year on Year in terms of both Unique Users and Pageviews, and seen a 100%+ growth in revenue, and pulled in some of the biggest clients in the industry. She has also driven the redesign of The Quint's website, founded the proprietary interactive microsite format "Quint Lab", and launched the health content platform "Quint Fit".
Along with being an accomplished leader, she has spearheaded many initiatives and campaigns tackling social issues. Some of her most successful campaigns are Register To Vote and Power Of 49, which championed a manifesto for women, who comprise 49 per cent of the population. Another significant initiative was The Quint's partnership with BBC, which led to the birth of #SwachhDigital India, a campaign against fake news.
Ritu Kapur has also strived to provide multiple platforms for free speech such as Talking Stalking, Bol and Citizen Q.
Digital Editor - BBC Hindi
As Digital Editor, Rajesh leads digital journalism to expand the BBC’s reach in India’s Hindi digital market. Rajesh, who has over 22 years’ experience of print, radio, online and TV journalism, focuses on bringing together the best of all mobile and social platforms. In last 18 months, in his leadership BBC Hindi has launched LINE, Audioboom and Instagram official accounts and revamped the Youtube channel. He was the leading member of the team that launched the BBC Hindi website, bbchindi.com.
Chief Operating Officer, India Today Group Digital
At India Today, Salil is responsible for overall health of the business, defining the strategy across various platforms, keeping in mind the long term goals and short term objectives. Plus, he ensures that his team has best of the environments to achieve their goals and the organisation's objective. Salil has over 18 years experience in managing diverse businesses starting with Media, Entertainment, TV Web and Print Web integration. He has worked at various CXO levels, CEO, COO, Vice President - Sales & Marketing, Head eCommerce, Country Manager, National Sales Head, Internet operations and Business Head. His earlier positions were at Microsoft, NDTV Convergence, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Hungama Mobile and Hindustan Times.
Business Head- Digital Content & Syndication, HT Media Ltd., India
Sanjay is a new media professional with experience across Advertising, Print, Web, TV and Mobile and with strong exposure to the Converging Ecosystem from within. At HT Media, he is responsible for creating strategic alliances and partnership ecosystem with major worldwide technology and content companies to expand business through joint ventures, acquisitions and partnerships.
Before joining HT Media, he was the head of MSN and MSN Apps India. Prior to that he was the CEO of NDTV Convergence.
Head - Media Solutions, The Mathrubhumi Group, India
Philip has a full-circle experience of ad-sales in media industry in the last 23 years, starting from Yellow Pages, Dailies, Magazines, FM Radio, Activation, Television and Digital. His latest innovation in media sales is 'Fusion Media Solutions', with the new media-technology venture, Vignets.com, a project of Mathrubhumi with Logical Steps. Before joining Mathrubhumi in 2007, he has worked with The Times of India, Indian Express and Getit Yellow Pages. He also has experience in the software industry, in product development for eLearning solutions.
Country Director (India), NewsRepublic
Radhika Shukla heads the Country Operations for News Republic in India. She is responsible for driving the revenue, marketing and growth of News Republic in India. She has worked in Indian Mobile & Internet space for more than 11 years. Prior to joining News Republic, she was the Product Head- Digital at The Hindu Group of Publications where she was leading the digital initiatives and was responsible for Hindu’s product launches & revenue on mobile.
Radhika has worked in New Product Development teams at Aircel and Airtel. She loves heights and depths- when not working you can find her trekking in Himalayas or scuba diving. Radhika is an MBA from FMS, Delhi and Bachelors in Technology from IIT BHU.
Vice President, Ad Tech - Times Internet Limited, India
Swapnil is currently Heading AdTech for Times Internet. At Times internet Swapnil is responsible for building world class Adtech strategy. Prior to joining Times he had started 2 ventures of his own. One was sold to Exponential / Tribal fusion, the other was backed by Intel Capital.
CEO - Havas Media Group, India & South Asia
Anita Nayyar is a veteran of Indian media being an integral part of its growth. As CEO she took on the mandate to expand the Havas Media Group footprint in these lucrative emerging markets in 2006. Under her leadership Havas Media Group in India has grown exponentially. It has expanded its offerings as an integrated communications group for traditional, digital, mobile, performance marketing, out-of-home and sports. The agency has grown 10 times in 8 years. She started and went on to lead leading agencies in India including Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy & Mather, Initiative Media, MediaCom and Starcom Worldwide.
Anita was voted the 2nd most influential media person in India by The Brand Equity Survey in 2006 and has always been in the top list of the most influential media personalities ever since.
Founder and COO of Express KCS
“Tariq is Founder and COO of Express KCS, a global, independent provider of creative production solutions across print, online, mobile and video platforms. He began his career working in Chicago for a leading production technology supplier, before returning to India to re-engineer Express KCS' operations in 2002 to allow it to become a leader in the provision of outsourcing creative production. Tariq has also led various innovations for Express KCS including StudioOnline and MediaFerry, a state of the art digital asset management and workflow management software. The company’s ability to deliver high quality creative production and digital marketing solutions across different platforms and fast turn-around time has helped it earn relationships with global brands and publishers across North America, Australia and Europe. Additionally, Tariq is also the founder of experiences.digital, a new age digital marketing firm engaged in providing innovative digital experiences on screen or via connected digital activations. Tariq holds Bachelors in Electronics from Delhi University and Bachelors in Science – Printing Technology and Computer Science from the Rochester Institute of Technology, New York.”
Founder & CEO, Simpli5d Technologies, India
Amit Mittal is the founder & CEO of Simpli5d Technologies, a product based mark-tech company and pioneer in the anti-ad-fraud domain. The company helps advertisers & publishers gain revenue and prevent loss in digital advertising business.
Amit is an IIM Lucknow alumnus with 10 years of cross functional experience across finance, strategy, marketing and operations. Well versed with the domestic as well as international media ecosystem, he has led and successfully executed numerous projects across media verticals – Digital, Radio, Broadcasting, Distribution etc. He was a core member of the Investment/Strategy team of Malaysian Media Conglomerate, Astro All Asia Networks and also served as the Head of Product/ Marketing for the digital business of Dainik Bhaskar group in the past. An ardent follower of the rapidly changing digital world, his core expertise lies in using technology to address large fundamental problems existing in the current environment.
Founder and CEO, vPhrase, India
Neerav is the founder and CEO of vPhrase, an Artificial Intelligence and Natural Langugage Generation company, that helps it's clients communicate insights from data, in a personalised way, at scale. Neerav has more than a decade's experience working in different roles and setting up businesses in Technology, Marketing and Finance. After completing his MBA from NMIMS, Neerav worked at Citibank before co-founding a fully online payroll application, eVetan. He then co-founded a digital marketing agency focussed on ecommerce before starting vPhrase.
Technology Editor & Product Manager, IBNLive.com, India
Soumyadip Choudhury is currently with Network18 as Technology Editor and Product Manager at IBNLive.com. A blogger and activist, his primary and most popular blog is Cutting the Chai. Before joining IBN he had worked with NDTV, Times Group and HT Media Ltd.
Co-Founder of CGnet Swara , India
Shubhranshu Choudhary is co-founder of CGnet Swara a Democratization of Media experiment based in Central India. They developed world's first Community Radio on Mobile Phone. He is a former BBC South Asia producer and was a Knight International Journalism fellow. He won Google Digital Activism award in 2014 and was chosen one of 100 Global leading thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine. He was selected as one of the Young Business Leaders by Boston Global Forum for the year 2015.
Assistant Product Manager, The Indian Express Online Media (P) Ltd, India
She is responsible for overseeing the integral aspects of the mobile applications including conceptualisation, strategic planning and execution of the final product.She also coordianates with vendors and other resources to develop new and exciting features to provide the best possible experience to consumers. Prior to The Indian Express she held a similar position at NDTV Convergence and played a pivotal role in developing mobile applications.
Head of Marketing – Content & Digital Media - Wijeya Newspapers Ltd – Sri Lanka
Umair who joined Wijeya Newspapers in 2008 was the first employee of the company who was recruited to focus the Digital Media side of the business. He spearheaded the Digital Revenue side of the business over the past 8 years and currently Wijeya Newspapers generates 60% of Direct Digital Ad placement market share in Sri Lanka. Umair was one of the first Digital Advertising specialists in Sri Lanka who has worked with over 500 brands over the past 8 years. Further He has introduced concepts of Content Marketing and Native Advertising and played a lead role in introducing WhatsApp news alert services in Sri Lanka. He’s a Chartered Marketer of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK and a MBA Holder of the Bucks New University UK.
Chief Content Officer, Hindustan Times
Prasad started with TV, went digital after a decade and is now trying to make sense of the biggest newsroom in the world's most dynamic news environment. Currently he is The Chief Content Officer, Hindustan Times, Previously he was with NDTV Convergence handling their newsroom, resources and handling big news day coverage. Prasad’s special interests are technology and cricket.
Chief Executive Officer – ABP News Network
Ashok started his career with Unilever, having been with them for 19 years, before moving into his current role of the CEO of ABP News Network – an ABP Group company (formerly a News Corp International and ABP joint venture) which runs India’s largest news TV network.
He is currently the Vice President and Director on the Board of the News Broadcasters Association of India and chairs their HR and Sales sub-committees.
Ashok was featured twice in the World CMO Council‘s list of India’s 75 top marketers and was awarded as ‘CEO with best HR Orientation’ in 2010.
He is an alumni of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and Harvard Business School.
Senior Director, Deseret Digital Media, USA
Matt is Senior Director at Deseret Digital Media and General Manager of Publisher Solutions, where he oversees BrandForge syndicated and native ad content studio, Deseret Connect contributor service, and DDM Academy digital transformation training services. His organization develops technology, and delivers news media and advertising for Deseret Digital Media group websites in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Indonesian languages. A mix of full-time employees, contractors and developers numbering more than 6500 combined, delivers more than 50 million page views to the media group per month, as well as content studio syndication and branded content services to more than 450 publishers worldwide.
Mr. Sanders joined Deseret Digital Media in June of 2010. DDM is the largest media enterprise in the U.S. intermountain west and one of the fastest growing globally.
Matt serves on the board of directors, and as Vice President of the Inter-American Press Association, which involves the owners and leaders of major news media organizations throughout Latin America.
Media Innovation Strategist, Berlin
Robb Montgomery is a journalism professor, consultant and serial entrepreneur based in Berlin, Germany. He is the author of two books on visual storytelling and the founder of several businesses including Visual Editors, Montgomery Multimedia and the Smart Film School.
Montgomery is a former visual editor for the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. He redesigned the San Francisco Examiner in 2005 and has led innovation projects throughout his career.
Montgomery teaches Mobile Journalism and Design Thinking at several European universities and is the author of “A Field Guide for Mobile Journalism” (iTunes) and “Smartphone Filmmaking” (Taylor & Francis).
He has two best-seller courses on Udemy (Smartphone Filmmaking and Mobile Journalism) and founded the Smart Film School in 2015 to provide certificate training resources for schools and organizations.
Editor-in-Chief, Huffington Post, India
Sruthijith is the editor-in-chief of Huffington Post India. He was formerly the editor of Quartz India. He has worked as a reporter and editor for ten years, writing on politics, business and media at The Economic Times, Mint and PaidContent.
Vice President and Managing Director, Google South East Asia and India
Rajan Anandan is the Vice President and Managing Director of Google South East Asia and India and is responsible for Sales and Operations in the region. Rajan is focused on expanding the Internet ecosystem in the region, increasing adoption among consumers and businesses and accelerating innovation. South East Asia and India, with over two billion consumers and 500 million Internet users, is the fastest growing Internet user base in the world.
National Director - Content & Social Media at GroupM
Karthik Nagarajan leads the content and social media practice at GroupM. In this role, he helps brands create and execute purposeful content strategies across multiple media platforms, guided by insights and data. He is also creating a sustainable ecosystem where content owners, agencies and brands can thrive together.
Prior to this, Karthik was leading The Nielsen Company’s online division in India, which he helped set up. He also led NM Incite, the joint venture between Nielsen and McKinsey for social media consulting, in India.
Karthik started his career in Internet cryptography in India and later took on leadership roles in the RFID market in the United States. When he is not on his day job, he is a screenwriter and an independent filmmaker for his production outfit ‘Filter Coffee Talkies’, which is into short, feature and documentary films.
Karthik also is a visiting faculty in institutions like MICA and IIM A.
Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Youth Ki Awaaz
Anshul Tewari is an Ashoka Fellow and the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Youth Ki Awaaz, an award-winning and India's largest online platform for young people to speak up on issues of importance, through a critical approach to journalism and crowd-sourcing. Anshul is also a United Nations ITU Fellow for youth innovation and a World Summit Youth Award laureate. His expertise lies in building sustainable, democratic and people driven media platforms. He also serves on the board of Collectively, a nonprofit focused towards engaging the current generation over sustainable development issues.
Deputy National Editor - The Hindu
Srinivasan Ramani is the deputy national editor of The Hindu. He also co-anchors the editorial and opinion pages of the newspaper and has previously worked with the Economic and Political Weekly as a senior member of the editorial team. Besides his primary interests in opinion journalism - in areas such as politics, public policy, international affairs, and analysis - Srinivasan has written a number of pieces in data journalism with focus in particular on electoral politics. He is the recipient of the Daksh-India Together fellowship on data journalism for the year 2014 to write a series of articles related to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Prior to his journalistic career, Srinivasan worked as a software consultant and analyst with Infosys Technologies Ltd. He is also trained in political science and comparative politics.
Head of Sales, SPH Digital, Singapore
Keith is the Head of Sales at SPH Digital, the Digital Division of Singapore Press Holdings. SPH Digital provides a suite of more than 25 news and lifestyle web-portals, engaging 23 million unique readers and generating in excess of 360 million pageviews within and outside Singapore. Responsible for driving digital revenue from domestic & international markets; including product & customer strategy, Keith heads up the Digital Sales organization and provides digital thought leadership to 7 sales teams, comprising more than 30 online sales professionals and digital strategists to lead digital transformation among brand owners, marketers & agencies.