Another season of shake up in Gujarati print media world

Ahmedabad, 10 September 2013

First it happened when ‘Divya Bhaskar’ arrived. Later it happened again when DNA arrived, and rival Times of India decided to recruit Gujarati reporters for its main English edition, and for a tabloid version ‘Ahmedabad Mirror’. Now the Gujarati print media world is witnessing major shake up again with arrival of Times of India group’s Gujarati newspaper ‘Nav Gujarat Samay’ which is to be launched soon.

Ahead of the launch of the Gujarati edition of the Times of India, 6 reporters left Gujarat Samachar group in last one month. One more may leave within this week.

Two reporters Rutvik Trivedi and Ajay Rami left Gujarat Samachar TV nearly a fortnight ago. Yesterday four more reporters left Gujarat Samachar. While senior political reporter Janak Purohit joined Sandesh, education reporter Hemant Joshi, junior crime reporter Mihir Bhatt, GujaratSmachar.Com reporter Dr. Pranav Dave left Gujarat Samachar yesterday. Senior Crime reporter Kamal Bhavsar is likely to join the Times of India later this week. All these reporters have been recruited for nearly double the amount of salary.

Earlier, Nav Gujarat Samay recruited similar number of journalists from another major Gujarati daily ‘Divya Bhaskar’. Shakil Pathan(reporting desk senior), Mazhar Pathan(education), Manish Rathod(court), Mayur Joshi(lower court), Siddharth Acharya(civic), Saumitra Trivedi(city bhaskar), Chetan Patel(desk), Samir Kanani(desk), Birju Shah(Mumbai), Vishwajit Parekh(Vadodara) are among those.

It is believed that the Times of India is in understanding with Sandesh group on not to poach latter’s staff, but couple of junior staff members have left Sandesh to join Divya Bhaskar.

The season of movement has impacted English press also to some extent. The Times of India’s senior crime reporter Prashant Dayal is back to Gujarati journalism and has rejoined Divya Bhaskar with monthly salary of over Rs. one lakh. DNA’s court reporter Nikunj Soni has joined the Times of India group.

Update:

Shri Munnavar Patangwala, senior political reporter of Divya Bhaskar today moved to Gujarati edition of the Times of India – Nav Gujarat Samay.

Divya Bhaskar’s cartoonist Satpal Singh Chhabda is now with Nav Gujarat Samay.

Divya Bhaskar’s senior photographer Shailesh Solanki is now with Nav Gujarat Samay.