Aparisim 'Bobby' Ghosh, a seasoned foreign correspondent and editor, is becoming editor-in-chief at Hindustan Times, two people with knowledge of the situation said. He will replace Sanjoy Narayan, who has held the top job at India's third most circulated English daily since 2008.
"We can confirm that Sanjoy is leaving in June. Bobby is one of the people we have met with," a spokesperson for HT Media said.
Ghosh is currently managing editor at Quartz, the business news publication from Atlantic Media. On Friday, editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney announced in an internal memo that Ghosh was leaving to take up a job that "he can’t yet disclose". This is his last week at Quartz.
Outgoing Hindustan Times editor-in-chief Sanjoy Narayan is seen with President Pranab Mukherjee and HT Media chairperson Shobhna Bhartia.
Narayan and Ghosh did not respond to a request for comment at the time of writing. According to his colleagues at HT Media, Narayan is leaving to spend more time with his family.
Prior to becoming managing editor at Quartz in June 2014, Ghosh was World Editor at Time magazine, overseeing all of its editions and reporters outside the United States. He was Baghdad bureau chief for the magazine and served as a foreign correspondent in Iraq. He has also worked at Time Europe and Time Asia. He will start at HT on 1 July.
Ghosh's appointment will help bolster HT Media's digital thrust. The company has built an integrated newsroom in its Delhi headquarters and reporters and editors for its English newspapers and websites--Hindustan Times and Mint--work out of the same floor. This initiative has so far been spearheaded by Nicholas Dawes, who HT hired as chief content officer in 2013 from South Africa's Mail and Guardian newspaper. Dawes' contract with HT is understood to be ending in September.
A Delhi-based foreign correspondent is also being tapped for a senior editorial role--possibly managing editor--at the paper, people with knowledge of talks said.