NEWJ (New Emerging World of Journalism Limited) has announced the appointment of senior journalist Siddharth Zarabi as the Managing Editor.
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A Chevening Scholar, Zarabi has over two decades of experience in media.
Zarabi has led newsrooms in print companies, as well as headed two business news channels with global partners.
Tech-media startup NEWJ was founded by a team of young entrepreneurs led by Shalabh Upadhyay.
It is a video-only, mobile-first publisher focused on curating and producing video content for the smartphone obsessed young Indians. NEWJ has, since its launch in January 2019, produced and distributed over 10,000 videos in seven languages, aggregating over 4 billion views while creating an audience of over 6 million across 12+ social media and OTT platforms. As many as 550 video stories produced by the ‘NEWJRoom’ have recorded over a million views each.
Upadhyay, Founder and CEO said, “It gives me great pleasure to welcome Siddharth on board at NEWJ to drive growth and value creation. As a young startup, we have achieved significant landmarks in a short span of time. In the midst of the massive disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, we believe now is the time to ramp up our mission of creating a voice for India’s emerging youth. In the fast-growing digital media landscape, we are committed to providing a platform for young journalists and content creators by continuing to expand our team.”
“In the days ahead, NEWJ aims to scale up its capabilities in visual storytelling with a focus on #BharatFirst. An important part of this mission will be to deepen efforts to reduce the urban-rural divide in India’s new media space by leveraging data and tech to serve one of the largest and fastest growing news markets in the world. Our mission is to tell stories that matter to India’s masses. NEWJ remains committed to helping build a ‘Digital Bharat’ and grow the country’s digital knowledge economy through impactful and India-centric storytelling,” Upadhyay added.
Speaking on the new assignment, Zarabi said, “India’s news media landscape is witnessing a massive transformation. The costs of the past and the legacy of old systems are weighing on innovation in content creation. The ongoing disruption is sowing the seeds for a new generation of tech-enabled, data-driven news producers. The news consumer of tomorrow will be even more ‘social’ than today and continue to ‘distance’ from existing, legacy news platforms.”
“Affordable data and connected devices have meant that an unprecedented amount of news is being consumed socially. NEWJ is extremely well placed to lead the ongoing transformational shift in the industry. I look forward to working with the phenomenal NEWJ team to continue serving great content to 400 million plus Indians active on social platforms like Facebook among others,” Zarabi added.
The startup’s ‘NEWJRoom’ produces videos in seven languages — Hindi, English, Tamil, Bangla, Marathi, Telugu, and Kannada. Some of the popular offerings are NEWJ Rajneeti, NEWJ Dharohar, NEWJ Garv and Filmy NEWJ.