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Microsoft's Sanjay Trehan joins HT Media

Trehan joins as business head of digital content and syndication. He will work on building the company's digital brands.

Sanjay Trehan, the head of MSN India at Microsoft, has quit after a six year-long stint. His last day at the company was March 16.

Microsoft's Sanjay Trehan joins HT Media
Trehan has joined HT Media as business head of digital content and syndication. He will be in-charge of the company's content portals including Hindustantimes.com, Livemint.com, LiveHindustan.com and DesiMartini, among others. Specifically, he will be responsible for scaling up these digital properties.

He says in a press note, "I had a very fulfilling stint at MSN. It was a pleasure working with a livewire team." He left the company after making MSN one of the top digital properties in India, both on the web and in the mobile space.

To Trehan, the move to HT Media is a "homecoming", as he has led the company's internet business in the past. During this stint he handled ePaper management and monetisation, and led the launch of the SMS Edition. He also led the Mindtree project and developed HTCitywise.com, HTClassifieds.biz and HindustanDainik.com.

He says, "Some of my crucial learning experiences in new media happened at HT Media during my first stint at the company (2001-2005)..."

Trehan had joined Microsoft in 2009; his task back then was to develop and lead the India strategy for MSN and MSN Apps. He was responsible for the overall availability and production of all forms of content (text, audio, and video) for MSN India. Trehan also spearheaded the revamp of MSN India in September last year; he aligned the design to the global website.

Prior to Microsoft, he was associated with NDTV, where he built synergy between TV channels, the internet and the mobile medium. He was founding CEO of NDTV Convergence and was instrumental in launching initiatives like WAP portal, NDTV Active, video aggregator Tubaah.com and video-based Hindi portal Ndtvkhabar.com.

Trehan was also associated with IndiaTimes.com (now Times Internet) as vice president, Broadband and Web 2.0 (2005-07). During this stint, he created an offering called The Magnificent Seven comprising a general interest channel, iCinema, iMusic, a gaming channel, a BB tabloid (Sizzle), a communities channel (comprising vBlogs, moblogs, podcasting, audioblogs and video chats), and an eLearning channel.

He has also helped forge strategic alliances with renowned global content providers and is credited with bringing the online gaming championship Electronic World Sports Cup (ESWC) to India.

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