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Tag: KK Birla

  • Hindustan Times EP Kohli to quit, Sharma likely to succeed

    Hindustan Times EP Kohli to quit, Sharma likely to succeed

    NEW DELHI: Changes are in the offing in The Hindustan Times, Delhi and north India’s former No 1 newspaper that has been displaced from the top slot by The Times of India.

    Executive president Rajan Kohli will be leaving the organisation – voluntarily, it is said. The names that are doing the rounds to succeed him include that of Rakesh Sharma, an old timer with HT and the current printer and publisher of the newspaper.

    An outsider’s name that is raising quite a few eyebrows is that of the CEO of a TV company that recently went public. This person had also worked with HT’s rival at one point of time.

    Kohli took over as the EP at HT from Deepak Shourie in the late 1990s at a time when the newspaper was experimenting with changes in in its format, masthead and also planning aggressive expansion outside Delhi to become truly a national newspaper being published from several places.

    The expansion did take place with hiccups along the way, but HT also got slowly swamped by an aggressive TOI during this period. The much-touted Mumbai edition, which has been talked about for over a decade now, has not not made an appearance, though over the past six months much activity has taken place in this regard.

    Kohli’s stint with HT has been rare in the sense that he has been amongst the few exceptions where a professional from outside the organisation had occupied the top management post, after the owner-promoter’s family.

    Shourie, who had taken over from Naresh Mohan, a trusted aide of KK Birla for several decades, was another rare exception.

    Kohli’s departure was communicated to the to the senior-level functionaries of HT Ltd. in a personal communique from Shobhna Bhartia, Birla’s daughter, who now virtually run the newspaper empire.

  • No conclusions on Star deal says Hindustan Times’ Bhartiya

    NEW DELHI: ,-owned Hindustan Times Ltd, is keeping all its options open, including a deal with the Rupert Murdoch-controlled Star India, but said no “conclusions” have been reached yet.

    “We are aware of the developments,” Hindustan Times (HT) vice chairman and Birla’s daughter Sobhana Bhartiya said when asked about the media reports on a HT-Star truck.

    Asked specifically if HT and Star have been talking to each other formally on a possible joint venture for Star News channel, Bhartiya, said, “No conclusions have been reached.” She also pointed out that Star has been talking to many people regarding a joint venture. She was answering questions from journalists after a meeting with information and broadcasting (I&B) secretary Pawan Chopra this evening.

    Asked whether Henderson Global Investment has picked up 20 per cent stake in HT Media, Bhartiya confirmed the development. However, she did not specify whether the investment was meant only for HT’s proposed Mumbai edition or for the whole group.

    Interestingly, while Bhartiya was meeting the I&B secretary on the sixth floor of Shastri Bhawan, which houses among other ministries the I&B ministry too, arch rival Vineet Jain of Times of India was part of a media delegation that was closeted with I&B minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, on the floor below.

    Bhartiya also said that the investment of Henderson was in line with the guidelines prescribed by the Indian government. She, however, did not specify whether an application to this regard has been moved with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).

    Just for records, Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer has some investments in Henderson.

    Earlier, a section of the media had speculated on the fact that Murdoch was picking up a minority stake in HT. In turn, these reports had said , 51 per cent of Star News was being offered to HT and/or Bhartiyas so that the news channel could conform to guidelines and avoid further controversies that had been hounding Star News for some time. The deal was supposed to have been struck in London.