So, apparently, the latest victim of the bursting media bubble is Samaa TV, which today sacked some half a dozen people, and rumours are rife within the channel that more pink slips are about to come. Ironically, many of those laid off today were refugees from DawnNews, i.e. they had been snapped up by Samaa when they were served their marching orders during DawnNews' scaling down spree a couple of months ago. Doesn't say much about Samaa's financial planning does it? Considering the fact that Samaa's owner, Accountant Zafar Siddiqui, has a reputation for such "spontaneous" decisions - he used to run the now defunct Telebiz before launching the CNBC franchise CNBC Pakistan and Samaa -it should hardly have come as a surprise though.
The buzz within the organization is that those who stay will also be asked to take a pay cut.
The news has followed the apparent demotion of Director News Amir Zia a few days ago. He was asked to move from Karachi to Islamabad as the Director Current Affairs. In his stead, ex-Dawn reporter Ehteshamuddin has been made the new in-charge of the News section. Meanwhile, according to reports, Server Moosavee, a director of commercials and music videos, has been annointed the new head of the channel. He was previously serving as adviser to Siddiqui. It's not clear whether former CEO Amir Jahangir has been replaced or Moosavee's position is a new one. Let's see how long that lasts.
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