FILM CITY (NOIDA): It was a normal afternoon at Film City Noida until a shocking news of mass layoff-like incident happened at one of the largest media houses in India. Zee Media Corporation Limited has forced, about 300 employees of their flagship news channel Zee Hindustan, to resign with immediate effect on 25 November. This is practically the entire staff of the channel.
As per sources, it has also been said that all the employees of this channel have already been shown the way out. "We were working in the office like always and then we were called by the management and were asked to resign immediately... and also to stop any work that we're doing", an employee told Jaano Junction who had to resign. "Everyone resigned in the similar manner, even Shamsher Sir", they added.
In the year 2020, the channel was given a new look (revamped) under the leadership of the then CEO Mr. Purushottam Vaishnav, and Mr. Shamsher Singh was working on the post of Managing Editor.
The employee further stated that Managing Editor Mr. Shamsher Singh, post his resignation, confronted the team and conveyed that he tried his best to fight with the top commands of the company for quite some time, tried to explain the vision and to save the entire talented team of Zee Hindustan but the call has been taken from Board level and there's nothing anymore that he can do.
Mr. Shamsher Singh even posted a tweet with no context. It translates, "Sometimes you are not in a position to forgive yourself." It cannot be said with surety if it is related to the mass-layoff or simply a coincidence to the scenario.
As per the statement issued by the company, the media conglomerate aims to re-brand the channel (Zee Hindustan) to meet the ever-evolving changes in consumer preference for content, with the group envisioning a whole new approach to connect its content to its audience where they are.
Having said that, the very foundation of Zee Hindustan channel was projected as a 'nationalist' channel with strong and aggressive 'right-wing' stance; which, as per many viewers, their other flagship channel, Zee News, is already considered to have following the same.
As per few employees, this "strategic restructuring" is basically an internal politics being played within the company. "The rising popularity and TRP of Zee Hindustan was perhaps perceived as a threat to the popularity of group's star channel Zee News", another employee shares with Jaano Junction.
"We were even told that the top command of the company realises that the content and delivery of our channel (Zee Hindustan) is almost similar to Zee News", the person added.
With almost 300 journalists and staff being out-of-job, it has been reported by internal sources that Zee UP-Uttarakhand Head and his team has taken over the command of Zee Hindustan, which few employees perceive as 'corporate politics' being played on them. Some reports even suggest that Zee Hindustan will soon be shut down.
Keeping in line with its strategy, ZMCL will diversify its current bouquet of content by introducing a new documentary channel in the near future along with multi-format factual content that resonates across segments. ZMCL will address the need gap with channels focused exclusively on delivering timely regional news.
Zee Media official statement
Tech sector layoffs which have left almost 1.5 lakh employees with an uncertain future, have triggered panic across the globe. Twitter, Meta, Google, BYJU'S, Ola, Meesho and many more have recently performed mass lay-offs. With a media organisation such as Disney planning layoffs, the prospect losing employment ahead of a recession is scary for workers across sectors.
