Swaminathan joins Times Internet as V-P

Times Internet has appointed IM Swaminathan vice-president. Earlier, he was director, communication and community products, Yahoo! India. Swaminathan will report to Sunil Rajshekhar, president and chief operating officer, Times Internet.

Speaking to afaqs!, Swaminathan says, “I will look after the various non-news online brands of Times Internet such as iTimes.com, a social networking site; Indiatimes.com; Zigwheels.com, an automobile portal; and HotKlix.com, a social bookmarking site. I will be primarily responsible for getting traffic on the non-news related websites of Times Internet and we may revamp the existing portals or launch new online properties to boost traffic.”

Swaminathan has more than 10 years of experience across digital and TV channels. He started his career with Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd (BCCL) as a senior officer in 1998 and moved on to Indiainfo.com in 2000. After a brief stint there, Swaminathan joined STAR India in November 2002 as manager. He was responsible for starting the short code 7827 services of STAR India.

In 2002, Swaminathan joined ESPN STAR Sports as head, multimedia ventures, and handled the channel’s web activities, virtual games and mobile related activities. He moved to Yahoo! India in 2006 to head the various product teams and manage online properties such as Yahoo! Mail, Instant Messenger, groups, movies and cricket. He was responsible for the localisation and launch of the language versions of Yahoo! Mail and Messenger.

For the record, Times Internet appointed Pradeep Gairola vice-president in October. Gairola is responsible for the online presence of the print properties of BCCL, which includes portals such as TimesofIndia.com, EconomicTimes.com, NavbharatTimes.com and MaharashtraTimes.com.