Narendra Alambara to join Daily Thanthi as COO

According to reliable sources, Narendra Alambara, vice-president, Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), is all set to join Chennai-based Tamil newspaper Daily Thanthi, published by Malar Publications, as its COO. He will assume the new role from Monday, March 5.

The post has been lying vacant after Krishna Shetty Skandraaj, the then COO of Sovereign Media Marketing, the marketing division of Malar Publications (publishers of Daily Thanthi), left the company in May, 2011. With over 22 years of experience, Skandraaj has been associated with Sovereign Media Marketing since May, 2005 and has been responsible for the development of the brand Sovereign Media Marketing, playing a key role to increase advertising revenue. In October 2011, Skandraaj joined another Tamil daily, Dinamalar, as general manager, marketing.

Alambara's last day at SMG was March 2. However, there was no official confirmation from Alambara or SMG regarding his movement from the company. In July 2011, Alambara was promoted as vice-president. Earlier, he was in-charge of the Chennai branch.

He has been instrumental in setting up the operations of Starcom Chennai, in 2005. He has more than 15 years of experience across account planning and media planning functions. Prior to joining SMG, Alambara was heading Initiative and MPG in the South. During the course of his career, Alambara has worked on many brand launches, and has been involved with key clients of SMG including Univercell, Hatsun, Akshaya and Caratlane, among others.

For the record, Malar Publications was incorporated in 1979. The group publishes Daily Thanthi, Maalai Malar, an evening newspaper Maalai Murasu, Tamil monthly magazine Gokulam Kathir, Rani Muthu and Rani weekly. The group also owns the television channel AMN TV, broadcasted across 19 centres in Tamil Nadu. The Malar Group established FM channels in 2006-07 in Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Tiruchirapally, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin and Pondicherry.