On changes at the Hindu

BY N Ram| IN Media Practice | 21/04/2011

We would not wish to be diverted from the basic objective of taking the Company and its publications, above all The Hindu, forward. Separation of ownership and management is a principle many successful organizations maintain, and when it comes to n

N RAM writes to his colleagues

April 21, 2011

The way forward

N. Ram

Our 132-year-old newspaper is one of India’s national assets and widely respected at home and internationally. Its success and progress over the decades are not the making of one or two individuals, whatever the claim may be; they are the making of a large team of journalists and non-journalistic staff. Right now, the Company employs 870 full-time journalists who carry the trust of millions of readers.

We would not wish to be diverted from the basic objective of taking the Company and its publications, above all The Hindu, forward.

In extended meetings on March 16 and April 18, 2011, the Board of Directors of our Company discussed the issue of editorial succession at The Hindu, which had been taken to the Company Law Board. These discussions were not only in pursuance of the directions given by the Company Law Board, which declined to intervene in the matter of editorial succession, but asked the Directors and the Shareholders of the Company to “consider” the issue “without much delay.” The discussions were also in the context of what the most appropriate structure would be to take the publications and the Company forward, on the editorial as well as business side.

Separation of ownership and management is a principle many successful organizations maintain, and when it comes to newspaper organizations, eight of the top ten English newspapers in the country have a non-family professional as Editor.

India’s top ten English newspapers

All but one are largely family-owned, but most have professional editors.

Title	Readership*	Editor	Professional/family
The Times of India	7,424	Jaideep Bose**	Professional
Hindustan Times	3,592	Sanjoy Narayan	Professional
The Hindu	2,115	N.Ram	Family
The Telegraph	1,238	Aveek Sarkar	Family
Deccan Chronicle	1,073	A.T.Jayanthi	Professional
The Economic Times	797	Rahul Joshi	Professional
DNA	750	Aditya Sinha	Professional
Mumbai Mirror	711	Meenal Baghel	Professional
The Tribune***	621	Raj Chengappa	Professional
The New Indian Express	529	Prabhu Chawla	Professional

*IRS 2010 Q4 (in ‘000)

** Editorial Director.

***Owned by a trust

The Board decided to adopt the principle of separating ownership and management not only on the editorial side but also on the business side, where the appropriate changes are expected to be made in the next few months.

At its meeting of April 18, 2011, the Board adopted a Code of Editorial Values, which has been published at our website, www.thehindu.com. It decided on a coherent framework of editorial succession, keeping all aspects in mind, and adopted several resolutions. It decided to appoint Siddharth Varadarajan, National Bureau Chief and an outstanding professional, as Editor of The Hindu, reporting to N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, in such time as the Board of Directors of the Company may decide. It decided further that Siddharth Varadarajan would be The Hindu’s Editor responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act when N. Ram steps down as Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu and N. Ravi steps down as Editor of The Hindu. The other Directors working on the editorial side would also step down from their current editorial designations in such time as the Board may decide and become part of a committee of the Board of Directors known as the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board would be available for advising the Editor responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act but would not have any role in the day-to-day editorial functioning of the newspaper.

The resolutions adopted by the Board on editorial succession will now go to the Shareholders of Kasturi & Sons Ltd. next month for their approval.

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N Ram Siddharth Varadarajan

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