Suguna Narayan, COO, TimeOut magazine has moved out

Suguna Narayan, the chief operating officer of TimeOut magazine has quit. However she declined to divulge details about her next appointment.

She says, “At present, I have two offers, one from print, and the other from a television company. I will take a call on this, and start my new assignment by early next month.

Narayan adds, “It has been an enriching experience to be a part of a city-centric magazine, especially at a time when Mumbai was waiting for this genre to be explored. But moving out, difficult as it may be, is inevitable and often one does so for better prospects.”

Smiti Ruia, publisher, TimeOut says, “We have mutually agreed to part ways. Narayan has helped in bringing stability to a start-up magazine. She brought in maturity, a varied contact base and rich experience to the organisation.”

She continues, “Currently, we are in the process of restructuring our entire team. We are looking at an organisation, which will be decentralised. For this, we are in the process of hiring people especially in the ad sales and marketing functions.”

Narayan has spearheaded many innovations after she joined the publication some 10 months back. She says, “The key achievement was in getting the operations in place. I was involved with the business plan of the other editions to be launched in different cities especially looking after the sales, marketing and distribution.”

Besides, she was also involved in exploring options for making the magazine available in non-traditional outlets such as coffee shops. She was also actively involved with the TimeOut fiesta, which was the first anniversary celebration of the Mumbai edition.

Narayan has earlier worked with Sony Entertainment Television as vice-president, client servicing.

Prior to that she had a brief spell at UTV and spent eight years at Times of India (Times FM and Times TV).

For the record, TimeOut is published by Paprika Media, which is part of the Essar Group.

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