Aditya Sinha, the editor-in-chief of the Bombay newspaper DNA has resigned, within weeks of former Times of India response chief Bhaskar Das joining the Zee group, which now wholly owns the paper. (Sinha’s departure had been preceded by the exit of K.U Rao, the long-serving publisher of DNA.)
Coming at a time when the Zee group is involved in a messy battle with Jindal Steel, with two of the television channel’s editors behind bars for alleged extortion and the group’s own Subhash Chandra and his son Punit Goenka being interrogated, Sinha’s exit has set tongues wagging.
On his microblog account, Sinha has tweeted that he left the paper he edited for two years to concentrate on writing novels. But in an interview with the media website MxM, he leaves little to the imagination as to why he moved on (update: an inference since denied by Sinha).
On the timing of his resignation: “It could have been done at some other time, but why should I follow other people’s timelines?”
On his replacement: “Ravi Joshi, the recently appointed Mumbai resident editor, suddenly finds himself incharge. Bhaskar Das may find an alternative if he can convince someone from his old place of employment to join.”
On DNA‘s upcoming redesign: “The paper is going through a slight redesign because Bhaskar Das wants to change the look-and-feel of the paper to a template that is familiar to us all. He is keen on an edit page, so I guess my departure strengthens his hands in some ways.”
On his lowpoints as editor: “The only lows were realizing that people working in the company did not even read your newspaper! It shows you that most non-journalists in the media industry have zero passion for their jobs.”
Read the full interview: Jaldi5 with Aditya Sinha
Also read: Does Swamy‘s DNA column amount to incitement?
Is UPA hitting back at TOI, India Today, DNA?
Are journalism’s best practices in your DNA?
I am reading DNA (Bangalore) for an year now. The content was good, and the lack of advertisments was a blessing for the readers. But now in recent few months, the number of pages has come down. Still it is a good read.
press council of india has issued a show cause notice to Aditya Sinha or the Editor of DNA folllowing a complaint by JSPL on their coverage of the ZEE extortion case and CAG report.