Viren Naidu
Print and Digital Editor - Times Property (West and South Editions) @Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. (The Times of India)
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WORK HISTORY
Print and Digital Editor - Times Property (West and South Editions) @Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. (The Times of India)
Mumbai, IN
Times Property is The Times of India’s leading weekly broadsheet supplement that covers news and features on real estate trends, transport, civic infrastructure and sustainable cities (or lack thereof)\\\\n\\\\n• Conceptualise and spearhead the editorial content for South and West editions (Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune) of Times Property\\\\n• Edit news stories and proofread pages on InDesign while also supervising layout and checking content for accuracy and errors\\\\n• Monitor city-specific developments (governmental, commercial and hyperlocal)\\\\n• Revamped the editorial appeal of Times Property in 2017 nationally to generate a high utilitarian and pick-up value while also making a serious beat like real estate interesting to a wider reader base such as Millennials\\\\n• Interviewed leading real estate experts for my column in Times Property (Mumbai) titled, ‘Talking Point’. Dabbled into conventional beat-specific topics (legal rights, state of urban infrastructure and government policies) and subjects that matter the most to the modern-day reader (democratisation of home-buying, transparency in real estate dealings and sustainable development).\\\\n• Introduced nonlinear and creative storytelling techniques (heat maps, infographics, snippets).\\\\n• Lead the newspaper\'s editorial staff, including reporters, sub-editors and emerging talent.\\\\n• A dedicated focus on women-specific stories in (a male-dominated) real estate industry. Edited the annual Women’s Day editions and featured several stories on safety of women, legal rights over property of daughters, biases against single women by landlords and banks (while availing home loans)\\\\n• Conducted exclusive interviews with government authorities such as Union Ministers, Harsh Vardhan, Ministry of Environment and Hardeep Singh Puri, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, which only positioned the newspaper as the beacon of ethical and credible news and one that features influential voices and decision-makers\\\\n \\\\n\\\\n \\\\n \\\\n\\\\n \\\\n
EDUCATION
University of Mumbai
Bachelor's degree, Mass Communication/Media Studies
ABOUT VIREN NAIDU
I enjoy editing articles. I am however shoddy at editing my achievements. Here’s my best effort • At The Times of India, I have donned many hats, key among them was when I spearheaded content for 27 editions of its flagship recruitment/business supplement, Times Ascent. Hobnobbing with CEOs of some of the most forward-looking companies restored my belief in the conventional wisdom that “people do leave managers, not companies” and the paper reflected just that • Did you know that only 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women? Or that there are bogus universities in India issuing fake certificates? Dabbled into stories that mattered, really mattered such as diversity and inclusion, succession planning, industry-academia gap and my favourite, gender politics. A complete data junkie and boy, how I enjoy old-school interviews • I am a big advocate for entrepreneurship (serial entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs; you name it), a subject that I got to dabble into when I took on the role of editor of The Economic Times\' High Flier section. • Later, identifying news that warrants intricate reporting on topics such as bilateral relations and foreign policies was a thrill.\'Russia India Business Report\' gave me the prospect of working with an international news desk (my biggest learning: I am more productive during peak Moscow winters) • As I was getting comfortable with print bylines, I had to embrace the nuances (and notoriety) of the virtual world. From 1200 words to 200? Though I am a spokesperson for the sacredness of the print medium, as a digital editor for I have come to rely on the worthiness of holding a newspaper while sipping my morning cup of coffee and accessing real-time news on my mobile device on my way to work, in equal measure • And then, Times Property happened, a weekly real estate supplement where I was invited to implement a comprehensive redesign of the newspaper. A beat perceived as slightly ‘serious’, required a sleek optimisation of routine news coverage. There’s something very humane about this beat; after all, a home is your biggest emotional purchase, isn\'t it? • In a nutshell, I am a content editor who adheres to the kind of journalism that gives the reader a certain kind of utilitarian value and the newspaper a certain kind of a pickup value • Also, I am not boasting. I give really good headlines. Try me.
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