Zee has restructured its operations in the South and created a new role of chief operating officer, Southern channels, reports Indiantelevision.com. Zee Telugu CEO Sanjay Reddy will now be responsible for four of Zee’s channels in the South—Zee Telugu, Zee Tamil, Zee Kannada and Zee 24 Gantalu.

Photo: AP Image

Ireland’s Independent News and Media (INM), sold a 7.3% stake in Jagran Prakashan Ltd (JPL) in a series of bulk deals yesterday and today. JPL CFO R.K. Agarwal said the company has authorized INM to sell upto 22 million shares, amounting to 7% stake in the publisher of Dainik Jagran, India’s most read daily.

As per the shareholders’ agreement, JPL has the first right of refusal should INM decide to sell. While the companies did not do a private deal, Agarwal said the company was buying as much stock from the open market as possible without triggering an open offer. “I have authorized my people to buy upto 5%—that is the most we can buy under the restrictions of the takeover code,” Agarwal said. “Exactly how much we ended up buying, I’ll know only tomorrow,” Agarwal said.

The promoter group—Jagran’s Gupta family—held 59.25% prior to the current transaction. (In the picture L-R: JPL CMD Mahendra Mohan Gupta and CEO Sanjay Gupta) 

Photo: Livemint.com

contentSutra has learned from highly placed sources in the ministry of information and broadcasting that Raghu Menon, a 1974-batch officer of the Indian Administrative Services, will soon take charge as the secretary at the high-profile ministry. He will replace Jawahar Sircar, the tourism secretary who has been holding additional charge of the I&B ministry.

Menon is an officer from the Nagaland cadre, and worked briefly as a journalist before joining the civil services, according to his profile at the National Aviation Company of India Ltd, where he has been chairman and managing director.

Menon has, in the past, worked at the I&B ministry, variously as joint secretary and additional secretary. An announcement to this effect is expected soon and Menon may take charge as early as Monday, according to our sources. Menon declined to comment. 

It’s Zee’s turn to be on top this week in the continuing musical chair among Colors, Zee and Star Plus for the top slot in GEC ratings. Even though Zee’s lead is marginal, it has the historical significance of being the first time in nearly a decade that the Subhash Chandra-owned channel has become No.1. According to data from audience measurement firm TAM Media Research, for the week ended 27 June, Zee had a GRP (gross rating point) of 243.14, while Colors, at No.2, had 242.76. According to this Business Standard story, Zee is also the leader in the prime time band.

T.N. Prabhu, CEO at UTV New Media, is leaving the company, according to a person familiar with the situation. The company has hired Manish Agarwal to replace him, the same person said. Agarwal is director, marketing at Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) India, and was formerly vice president, marketing, at Rediff.com (NSDQ: REDF). Prabhu could not be reached for comment and did not respond to text messages left on his mobile phone. Agarwal declined comment. We could not ascertain where Prabhu was headed next.

Leading digital agency Webchutney has released Digital Media Outlook 2009: A Study Of The Indian Digital Marketing Scenario. While the study has the customary projections on ad spends, what we found more interesting was the ‘perception mapping’ exercise that plots the perceptions of brand heads, marketing heads and other senior executives across India’s top 500 marketers. (Click the image for a slideshow of the key slides from the study.)

Here are some interesting numbers and findings from the study:

1) Only 82% of the top 500 marketers spend any money online. Together, the top 500 marketers in India spent Rs5,163.26 crore in 2008-09. Of this, only 5.4% (about Rs278 crore) was spent on the Internet. The study estimates that this amounts to 64% of total Internet ad spends—this means the total money spent advertising on the Internet is about Rs435 crore.

Sidin Sunny Vadukut will replace Durga Raghunath as managing editor of Livemint.com. We reported last week that Raghunath was leaving to join WSJ India as editor, mobile and digital product development.

“Sidin, a staff writer at Lounge, has written extensively on a range of subjects including technology, authors one of Livemint’s most popular blogs—Playthings—and also writes a column for the edit pages,” Mint managing editor R. Sukumar wrote in a memo to staffers earlier today. 

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, one of India’s largest listed media firms, said its board has approved an employee stock options (esop) programme for the benefit of its employees and directors. Stock options will be issued over a period of five years and would be convertible into equity shares up to maximum of 5% of paid up capital of the company. ZEEL is part of the Subhash Chandra (pictured) -promoted Essel Group. “The employee stock options scheme, subject to shareholders approval, is a mechanism to not only reward the efforts of the employees, as also to develop a greater ownership and to develop a stronger foundation for the future,” CEO Puneet Goenka said in a statement. The scheme is subject to the approval of shareholders of the company at the annual general meeting scheduled for 18 August.

Saleem Mobhani, COO at Hungama Digital Media, is joining Airtel as CEO of its Mobile Entertainment division, reports Medianama. We have independently confirmed the development. Mobhani declined comment.

Mobhani came to the Hungama fold when the latter acquired IndiaFM.com (now Bollywood Hungama) in 2000. He was named chief operating officer in April 2006. Mobhani has also worked at Development Credit Bank, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

In March, as part of an organizational restructuring, Airtel said “New business verticals such as M-commerce and M-entertainment etc. are being created to generate new revenue streams”. 

In what ranks as one of the biggest news media layoffs in recent times, NewsX, the english news channel that was acquired by Indi Media Pvt. Ltd in January, has laid off 78 staffers, according to a company source. Indi Media—a company co-owned by journalist Jehangir Pocha and entrepreneur Vinay Chhajlani—acquired NewsX from INX News Pvt. Ltd, which was promoted by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea and backed by a clutch of private equity firms including Singapore government’s Temasek Holdings.

As part of its continuing expansion of services focussed on the Indian market, The Wall Street Journal has hired Durga Raghunath, managing editor of Livemint.com. She will join WSJ as editor, mobile services and digital product development, India. Raghunath confirmed the development. She will report to Paul Beckett, WSJ’s India bureau chief.

India’s government has banned popular toon porn site Savitabhabhi.com. According to documents seen by contentSutra.com, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, has asked all Internet Service Providers to block the website in a communication dated 3 June.

The Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA), a government agency under the Department of Information Technology, is the agency that is entrusted under the IT Act to block websites. N. Vijayaditya, of the CCA, confirmed the development. “There were several complaints against the site. We have taken action under the relevant sections of the IT Act and blocked the site,” he said. When asked if the agency will give a chance to the owners of the site to defend themselves, he said nobody has come forward so far with such a request. He said he could not say if the agency will pursue legal action against the operators of the website.