Prem Panicker, Managing Editor of Yahoo India, has resigned, after five years with the company. Yahoo India has confirmed this development to MediaNama, saying that he will remain with the company till mid December to hand over responsibilities. Alan Soon, who is currently the Managing Editor for Southeast Asia, will take on a larger role as the Managing Editor for India and Southeast Asia.
Panicker has also confirmed the development to MediaNama. In an emailed statement, Panicker said that the stint at Yahoo taught him “how to see beyond the tip of my nose, think of content and corporate strategy at scale. Like an understanding of Internet traffic patterns not merely as it plays out in my geography but on a wider, more global scale and how to connect the various dots up. So much, that’s it’s been five years of non-stop learning and revision. Also, Yahoo gave me room to experiment with content types, try out new ways of telling stories — like for example open-form narrative.”
He declined to comment on his next move, saying that he’d like to double down on “some of these projects that I find exciting. It’s premature to talk of exactly how and where — I’m going to take a small breather first.”
Prior to joining Yahoo India, Panicker was with Rediff.com for over 13 years, as a part of its startup team. During that period, he also ran Rediff’s India Abroad publication from New York as its Editorial Director. Before that, he was with the Sunday Observer for three years.
A few things we noticed at Yahoo India, during Panicker’s tenure at the editorial helm: a focus on long-form content and opinion: starting with columns, which were eventually discontinued, the launch of Yahoo Originals (mostly via a partnership with Grist Media), and more recently, the usage of Tumblr for year long series: The Noble Mansion by Rahul Bhatia, River Diaries by Arati Kumar-Rao. A personal bugbear, though: the tech section was always quite uninspiring; the move of getting brands like commonfloor, myinsuranceclub, creditvidya and others as content providers was unusual.
Yahoo’s statement
“We confirm that Prem Panicker, Managing Editor, India will be leaving Yahoo. We thank Prem for his valuable contribution to Yahoo and wish him the very best for the future. Prem will stay on till mid December to support the handover of responsibilities.
Alan Soon, who is currently the Managing Editor for Southeast Asia will now move into a larger role as the Managing Editor for India & Southeast Asia. Alan has been with Yahoo for over five years, and has been instrumental in building a robust Yahoo editorial presence across several markets in the region.”
Photo: via Panicker’s twitter profile
