How a New Leader Gets Covered by Indian Business Media

A new leader in India gets covered by business media by giving each outlet the kind of story it already publishes. First the appointment, for the people-moves pages. Then a launch, results or a clear view on the category, sent in one short email to the right journalist with the photo and facts attached.

Moves are frequent, so the appointment alone does not carry you far. Boardroom Moves tracked 48 senior leadership moves in India announced between 17 and 29 October 2026, as our October 2026 report shows. Marketing and brand roles moved most, with 18 of the 48. A journalist covering your sector sees many of these.

At Boardroom CXO we run executive search for retail, jewellery and D2C brands, and through Boardroom Moves we record senior leadership moves in India every week. This guide is what we see work for a leader in the first months of a new role. The day-of announcement, and the sites that track appointments, are covered in how to announce a new CXO appointment in India.

What counts as news for a new leader?

News comes in stages for a new leader: the appointment, then something the company does under you, then numbers it shares, and later your view on the category.

• The appointment. This is news for about a week. After that, a new leader needs a new reason to be in the news.
• A first move. A launch, a new market, a new format, a partnership or a rebrand. This is company news, and trade sites cover it.
• Results. Growth, store counts, customer numbers. Only use numbers the company has cleared for public use.
• A view on the category. What is changing in your sector and why, backed by data. This is the route to interviews and guest columns.

Before you pitch anything, ask one question: would a reader who does not know you find this useful? If the honest answer is no, it is not news yet.

Which outlets cover what?

Indian business media splits into three groups: sector trade sites for company news, HR and leadership sites for people topics, and mainstream business papers for the biggest stories.

Sector trade sites are where most new leaders start. For retail and consumer brands, ETRetail and IndianRetailer.com both publish outside contributors, and IndianRetailer.com lists founders, CEOs and vice presidents among its contributors. For marketing and brand leaders, Storyboard18 runs Brand Makers, its section on founders, CMOs and brand leaders. exchange4media has a people movement news section and a guest column for advertising, media, marketing and PR experts, and afaqs runs guest articles.

HR and leadership sites suit a CHRO, or any leader with a view on people and work. People Matters reports leadership appointments and invites C-suite executives and HR leaders to write for it. ETHRWorld has sections for HR movements, Leaders Speak and Expert Speak, and publishes guest posts.

Mainstream business papers such as Mint and The Economic Times run opinion sections with columnists and interviews. Do not start with the mainstream papers. Start with the trade sites that already cover your sector, and aim higher once you have company news of a size those papers report.

How to pitch a journalist

Send one short email to the one journalist who covers your area, with the news in the subject line and the photo and facts attached.

The right journalist is the one whose name is on the last few stories like yours in that outlet. Read their recent pieces first. A pitch to a general inbox, or to the wrong desk, is easy to miss.

Keep the email to five or six lines:

• The subject line says the news, in plain words.
• The first line says what happened and when.
• One line on why it matters to that outlet's readers.
• One number or fact the company has cleared, if you have one.
• When you can talk, and a phone number.

Attach what a journalist needs to file the story: the company announcement or press note, one approved headshot, a three-line bio with your previous roles, and two lines about the company. Use the exact title you agreed at the time of the announcement.

Send one email. If there is no reply in a week, one short follow-up is fine. After that, let it go. Offer a real story to one outlet at a time, and say so in the email.

Contributed articles and guest columns

A guest column gets a new leader a byline when it follows the outlet's rules: original, written only for that outlet, and not a plug for your company.

The rules are published, and they are strict. As of October 2026:

• ETRetail wants the full article, not a topic or synopsis. It must be original and written only for ETRetail, not published even on social media or a personal blog. Once ETRetail takes it, it cannot go to another publication without approval. It must not be an endorsement of the author's product, company or client.
• ETHRWorld asks for original posts written exclusively for it, marketing-neutral and not a plug for the author's product or company. It gives full author credit with a short bio and a link to the author's LinkedIn, Twitter or website.
• People Matters asks for 700 to 1,500 words, from C-suite executives, HR leaders, professors or researchers, following its style guide. It says it cannot publish articles that are promotional, plagiarised or of low quality.

So write about the category, not your company. Pick one question your sector is arguing about, take a side, and support it with data you can link to. Public data works well. As an example, our monthly Boardroom Moves report gives counts of tracked moves by function and sector, with a CSV download. If you quote it, say what it is: a record of the moves we tracked, not every move in India.

A byline also leaves a page with your name on it. ETHRWorld, for one, links the author bio to the author's LinkedIn profile. That page is still there when someone searches your name next year.

Where Boardroom Moves fits

Boardroom Moves covers the appointment itself, on LinkedIn and at boardroomcxo.com, so you can save your pitching effort for the stories that come after it.

Every Thursday, the Boardroom Moves Brief on LinkedIn lists 5 to 6 leaders who moved that week, written from public announcements, with nothing asked of the leader. Featured placement gives the move a dedicated LinkedIn post. The Plus option adds an article on boardroomcxo.com written to rank for the leader's name. The leader sees the draft before it goes live and can ask for changes. If we hear nothing within 48 hours, it goes live as drafted.

You can tell us about a move here. If you are weighing this against a PR agency or a paid profile, we compare the options in executive PR in India: agency, paid profile or announcement feature.

What to avoid

Most pitches from new leaders fail for avoidable reasons: they are promotional, sent to everyone at once, or built on numbers and claims the company has not cleared.

• Mass emails with a long list of journalists in copy. Each one reads it as a pitch to nobody in particular.
• Sending the same guest article to several outlets. Outlets such as ETRetail and ETHRWorld ask for pieces written only for them.
• Pitching your product in a column. Every guidelines page above rules it out.
• Numbers the company has not cleared, or comments on your old employer.
• For a listed company, talking to media before the stock exchange filing is out.
• Chasing a journalist by phone and WhatsApp after one follow-up.
• Treating paid content as coverage. afaqs, for example, lists Advertorial and Branded Content as their own sections, apart from its news. Readers can tell the difference.

If you are hiring at the top yourself, our team can help with the search. Schedule a call.