Business Head Pankaj Rai retained at WION and Zee Business for now

Rai joined the organisation in March this year and decided to quit in the first half of September

by e4m Staff
Published: Oct 4, 2024 5:54 PM | 3 min read

Pankaj Rai has stayed back at Zee and decided to continue his role as Business Head of both WION and Zee Business for now. Little more than two weeks ago, Dr Subhash Chandra had a conversation with Rai post which he decided to stay back at least for the time being.

e4m had earlier reported on 10 Sept that Pankaj Rai had decided to quit the organisation but is now retaining his role as Dr Subhash Chandra spoke to him directly.

The reasons for his resigning and staying back are not confirmed by Zee. However, two reasons that are being pointed out are the fact that ZMCL's revenue has declined substantially in the last few months and there has been a lot of pressure on everyone including Rai to do larger revenues. Secondly, his reporting had changed post the new CEO joining in and the structure had changed too. Rai wasn’t comfortable about both the issues.

Rai was earlier reporting to Mona Jain who was reporting to Dr Idris Loya but is now reporting directly to the new CEO and working closely with the new CRO.

Infact, Dr Loya had gone on a long leave and is likely to re-negotiate a new contract with Zee on 8th October in a trimmed down role and newer compensation. On the new role and new compensation though the decision hasn't been yet made and things are fluid.

E4m.com had said either Dr Loya will move on or likely to get a different role which may not be the all encompassing role he had earlier.

The new CEO was okay to relieve Rai, however, senior internal leaders in the Zee ecosystem convinced the chairman to retain him, especially when ZMCL saw a lot of churn and lots of senior people resigned, after the new CEO joined in.

It is understood that the incoming CEO is not in favour of retaining him as he was bringing in a new Chief Revenue Officer from the last organisation, where both had worked together in the past.

When Pankaj Rai joined the network in March 2024, e4m was the first to report the development. As Sales Head, he leveraged his extensive experience to drive revenue growth.

Prior to Zee Media, he served as the National Head at The Q, and before that, he spent over a decade with Zee Entertainment, where he managed the revenue portfolios for flagship channels like Zee TV, Zee Cinema, and Zee Bollywood in the North and East regions.

Rai's background in managing key accounts and executing strategic sales initiatives has made him a well-respected figure in the industry, and his next move is highly anticipated.

When e4m reached out to confirm his retention, Rai vehemently denied. But in September, before reporting, a senior editor from e4m had spoken to Rai, where he neither confirmed nor denied about his move from ZMCL.