Malini Parthasarathy resigns as the editor of The Hindu

She was The Hindu's first woman editor

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Malini Parthasarathy, Editor of The Hindu, has submitted her resignation to the board. Suresh Nambath will be the interim editor of the newspaper.

Malini Parthasarathy has confirmed to The News Minute that she has resigned. The announcement was also made to the employees in the Chennai office of The Hindu by the heads of respective departments.

"Malini Parthasarathy has tendered her resignation as the Editor of The Hindu with immediate effect. After due process, the resignation has been accepted by the Board. Until we find a suitable replacement, the National Editor of The Hindu, Suresh Nambath, will be taking care of the day-to-day affairs of the paper. An internal communication has been sent to all the employees of The Hindu," said N Ram, Chairman of The Hindu's Board of Directors to The News Minute.

Sources in The Hindu say that one of the reasons for differences between Malini and The Hindu board was the way their Mumbai edition was launched and the amount of money spent on it.

UPDATE:

Here is Malini's letter to her team after her resignation.

Dear colleagues, In view of the strong feedback I have been receiving on "general dissatisfaction" with my performance as Editor these last 11 months, I hereby resign from the post of Editor, The Hindu, with immediate effect. I also want to place on record my deep disappointment that my performance has been judged so harshly within such a short span of time, without any cognisance of the landmark initiatives in my tenure- the launch of the Mumbai edition and the total upscaling of editorial content. I have also put in place strong talent-driven and experienced teams in different centres. I leave with a sense of pride and satisfaction that I have consistently upheld basic journalistic values. I will continue to serve as a Wholetime Director. Sincerely Malini Parthasarathy

Malini has been credited with energizing The Hindu’s reporting team and was responsible for the revamp of the newspaper and for making it appealing in the digital era.

However, her tenure as Editor has also been dotted with internal squabbles involving some high profile resignations.

One of the most public resignations was that of Rahul Pandita who was the Op-Ed page Editor. He resigned within a year of joining The Hindu. He alleged that she interfered with his working and that there was “absolutely no freedom for the current editors”.

The last few years at The Hindu have been turbulent for the management, with family disputes spilling over into the professional domain, and allegedly affecting employees’ functioning.

In July 2014, the Hindu’s Rural Affairs Editor P Sainath quit, as did Praveen Swami, the newspaper’s Strategic Affairs Editor & Resident Editor in New Delhi.

Read- The Hindu responds to allegations, Sainath and Praveen Swami did not suit their roles

For a brief duration of around two-and-half-years, the newspaper appointed Siddharth Varadarajan, the newspaper's Delhi Bureau Chief as the Editor of The Hindu, in an attempt to professionalise the newspaper. Varadarajan quit in October 2013 and at that time, the Board of KSL led by N Ram was accused of not allowing professionals to run the newspapers.

After Varadarajan's resignation, Malini Parthasarathy was made the Editor and N Ravi the Editor-in-Chief.

She took over officially as head of editorial operations on February 1, 2015 from N Ravi, who stepped down from his post on January 31. The official announcement by the board of KSL in February 2015 had said: "The Board also noted that Dr. Malini Parthasarathy has the rare distinction of being The Hindu’s first woman Editor, and wished her the very best in taking The Hindu to greater heights."

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