User Profile

Director, Strategy, New Delhi Television

Suparna Singh has worked for nearly 20 years in television news in India. As Director, Strategy at New Delhi Television, India's premier private news network, her job is to ensure that the company stays ahead of a highly-kinetic curve. Technology has grabbed journalism and moved it from traditional newsrooms and into an online world where stories and opinion break at a stunning beats-per-minute. The challenge is to allow the two-way exchange of ideas and information to power news-reportage without compromising on old-school values - double-checking facts, corroborating sources, demarcating views from news. In today's highly-competitive world of TV news in India - there are more news channels than most viewers can recall- speed and accuracy must be married every minute. Over the last two years, as CEO of the group's digital arm, NDTV Convergence, Suparna has worked with a team of brilliant editors and tecchies on introducing huge synergies between traditional TV news and its online avatar. NDTV's website, ndtv.com, has doubled its traffic in 24 months. A series of apps have been launched, won international awards, and are market leaders. The mobile phone is among the most effective tools of empowerment for India today, and CSR plans for the company involve developing a new range of content that can bring information and knowledge at the cheapest possible cost to rural Indians. Part of the digital challenge for content companies in India is monetization. Advertisers have been slow to extend or assign their budgets to digital media. Yet, NDTV Convergence is profitable, and its revenue this year shows a 58% growth over last year. As an undergraduate student, Suparna studied Advertising at Menlo College, California. She took a five-year sabbatical from NDTV to get her Master's in Film at Syracuse University, New York, before moving to Los Angeles to work with movie studios. She returned to Delhi in 2002. Films remain a passion, along with Golden Retrievers. She is a Fellow of the fourth class of Kamalnayan Bajaj FellowshipFellows and the Aspen Global Leadership Network.