Durga Raghunath is to take over as digital head of Times of India, Mirror Brands, Newspoint, Gadgets Now and Etimes, Times Internet has announced.
Before joining Times Group, Raghunath was serving as ‘SVP Growth’ at Zomato and previously as founder and CEO of Firstpost and Network18 Digital.
The Gurugram-based venture has also elevated Rohit Saran as the Chief Editor of Times Internet. He was previously the Managing Editor for The Times of India (Print) and Executive Editor of The Economic Times (Print).
Raghunath will look after the product and business sides of the aforementioned brands.
The changes appear to have been necessitated when media companies, especially print media, is seeing the worst phase in terms of advertising revenue, thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic. Newsrooms across the country including Times Group had laid-off employees and also shut down loss-making verticals.
Speaking on the announcement, Times Internet CEO Gautam Sinha said, “Durga’s entrepreneurial energy and experience, and Rohit’s broad editorial exposure and deep understanding make us believe we can set and achieve audacious goals over the next five years. Both senior leaders would report to Times Internet COO Puneet Gupt.”
The hiring of Raghunath is one of the high profile hires for Times Internet in the past couple of years. Last month, the Gurugram-based company’s Chief Strategy Officer Miten Sampat had quit after a seven-year-long stint.
Sampat has led investments, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships for the firm. Besides Sampat, Times Internet-owned accelerator’s managing partner Shoaib Grewal also resigned last month. He has joined early-stage investing firm venture as a partner.
