MUMBAI: One of the world’s biggest news networks, CNN International has boosted its top level line up with Greg Beitchman being roped in from Reuters as vice president for content sales and partnerships. He will be responsible for overseeing and developing the network’s content sales and business on an international level with broadcast and digital being the main priority.

According to the release, his role will include content sales and partnerships, out of home services and licensing deals. Apart from this, he will also be involved with CNN’s NewSource content syndication service. CNN has about a 1000 global broadcast partners.  

At Reuters, Beitchman was global head of multimedia content. Commenting on his appointment, CNN International COO Rani R. Raad said in a release, The worlds news consumption habits are evolving, and our business is evolving with that. Our commercial strategy is geared towards ensuring our consumers and partners have access to CNNs best-in-class journalism across all platforms, and Greg is the perfect man to help us deliver that. He is a first-class operator and will make a major contribution to guiding and strengthening our commercial enterprise.

Beitchman has been involved with India over the last many years. During his stint with Reuters he moved to Delhi in 1997 to lead the international news agency’s investment into the news agency ANI (Asian News International). In 2005, he returned to India to spearhead the launch of Indian English news channel Times Now as executive producer and broadcast talent. In 2007, Reuters launched its Indian domain reuters.co.in to cover news about India and its neighbours, which was also led by Beitchman and his team. While in India, he also covered the 26/11 terror attacks at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai for Reuters.

Talking about his appointment Beitchman commented: “In an era when audiences have an almost infinite supply of content, CNN stands out among the world’s most trusted news brands. As our audiences and partners look for innovation in storytelling and commercial models, this is an exciting time to work on strengthening CNN’s commercial proposition internationally.”