Suresh Balakrishnan is COO of Living Media-Associated Newspapers JV

Suresh Balakrishnan, erstwhile chief marketing officer, Diligent Media Corporation, which owns the newspaper, ‘DNA’, has joined the new joint venture between Living Media and Associated Newspapers as chief operating officer. He will report to Ashish Bagga, CEO, Living Media.

Associated Newspapers publishes the ‘Daily Mail’ in the UK, among others. The joint venture was struck in March this year and hasn’t been christened as yet. “Too early to comment on that,” replied Bagga, when asked about it.

Balakrishnan will be responsible for the business performance of the company. The group is expected to target the tabloid space and will leverage the tie-up with the ‘Daily Mail’ to launch a morning tabloid. Its future course of action, however, is not being disclosed. The India Today Group currently has an afternoon tabloid in Delhi, called ‘Today’.

Balakrishnan had moved to ‘DNA’ from the Zee Group, which has a major stake in the company. He joined Zee Entertainment Enterprises as executive vice-president, marketing, in 2005.

Prior to that he was with ‘Hindustan Times’, where he worked for around two years. In his career, Balakrishnan also headed the rural division of the Lintas Media Group, called Linterland.

© 2007 agencyfaqs!