Malini Parthasarthy quits – The Hindu sees four editors in four years

January 5, 2015, NewsCrunch

The abrupt resignation of Malini Parthasarthy as editor of The Hindu brings to an end her 11-month stewardship of the paper and adds to its sense of instability.

Her departure also brought to the fore, the family feuds that have rocked and undermined the cherished media institution over the last five years.

In its 137 years of existence, The Hindu has seen just 15 editors and four of them in last four years.

The Hindu editors typically held their posts for decades providing enviable stability till the instability phase started.

N Ram resisted calls to quit in 2012, after crossing the retirement age. To prevent a fellow family member ascending the chair, he brought in Siddharth Varadarajan, the paper’s Delhi-based bureau chief.

Malini Parthasarthy, who was then an executive editor, quit in protest against the elevation of a professional junior to her.

Siddharth Varadarajan was fired in 2013 and N Ram openly accused him of violating company’s values, among other things.

N Ravi came out of retirement and took over as editor in chief, while Malini Parthasarthy returned as editor. Both the relatives ran the show together.

Last year, N Ravi quit and Malini Parthasarthy gained the sole charge of the newspaper.

Her short but tumultuous leadership saw many senior journalists quitting – P Sainath, Rahul Pandita and Praveen Swamy, among them.