Oct 2020 – Mar 2022 · 1 yr 5 mos · Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India · On-site

• Led the creation and curation of print and digital content across multiple formats — including social media, press material, website content, reports, coffee-table books, newsletters, internal communications, and campaign collateral — ensuring clarity, consistency, and editorial discipline.
• Developed content that accurately reflected client objectives and brand values, balancing creative storytelling with professional integrity and messaging responsibility.
• Conducted in-depth research and interviews, including conversations with beneficiaries and stakeholders across 31 districts, translating real-world insights into credible, grounded, and human-centered narratives.
• Collaborated closely with internal teams and external partners to verify facts, source data, refine messaging, and maintain accuracy, strengthening content credibility and impact.
• Supported senior leadership with internal communication content, helping improve organisational clarity, alignment, and tone.
• Documented workshops, training sessions, orientations, and campaign events, creating structured and archival content for institutional memory and reporting.
• Designed and implemented an editorial mission, tone framework, and content standards, ensuring consistent voice, quality control, and brand coherence across platforms.
• Supervised junior staff, mentored writers, generated campaign concepts, and oversaw planning and execution of multiple communication initiatives — maintaining high standards under tight deadlines.
• Maintained a disciplined, deadline-driven workflow, consistently delivering high-quality content while upholding professional ethics, editorial rigor, and accountability.

Sep 2015 – Mar 2020 · 4 yrs 6 mos · Greater Chennai Area · On-site

• Led regional story curation and news prioritization across four South Indian states (excluding Tamil Nadu) and Odisha, ensuring strong, balanced, and high-impact representation across editions.
• Coordinated closely with state desk heads and regional bureaus, tracking developing stories, verifying news value, and shaping coverage decisions across multiple geographies.
• Monitored evening story lists and breaking updates, identifying key developments and ensuring timely inclusion in pages.
• Built and produced regionally diverse news pages, integrating stories from multiple states to create cohesive, newsworthy, and reader-relevant editions.
• Strengthened cross-state newsroom collaboration, improving editorial flow, story follow-up, and turnaround time.
• Before this, as Editor of Chennai Express, a flagship daily supplement covering lifestyle, arts, music, cinema, culture, and civic issues, I shaped the publication’s editorial vision, tone, and identity.
• Led and managed a team of reporters and copy editors, overseeing story planning, assignments, editing, mentoring, and daily production — consistently meeting tight publishing deadlines.
• Played a key role in the redesign and editorial revamp of the supplement, modernizing its visual identity, content formats, and reader appeal.
• Coordinated closely with marketing, photography, and reporting leadership, aligning editorial priorities with audience trends, city conversations, and brand positioning.
• Actively tracked emerging news and social media trends, integrating timely cultural and civic narratives into daily coverage.
• Oversaw end-to-end page production, including story curation, editing, proofreading, layout decisions, and final editorial quality control.
• Strengthened the supplement’s reputation as a credible, culturally relevant, and widely anticipated city read, balancing lifestyle coverage with meaningful civic storytelling.

Mar 2015 – Aug 2015 · 5 mos · Greater Chennai Area · On-site

• Prepared and implemented editorial strategy and content operations for a large online health and wellness platform, balancing medical accuracy, readability, and digital performance.
• Managed and mentored a cross-functional team of in-house writers, copy editors, SEO analysts, and freelance contributors — ensuring consistent quality, productivity, and editorial discipline.
• Established editorial guidelines and digital writing standards, with a strong focus on SEO best practices, keyword usage, hyperlinking, clarity, brevity, and web-friendly readability.
• Commissioned and developed original health and medical content, working closely with medical professionals and subject-matter experts to ensure credibility, accuracy, and public trust.
• Regularly reviewed, updated, expanded, and refined existing content, keeping information current, medically responsible, and aligned with evolving health knowledge.
• Trained staff on writing style, grammar, tone, accuracy, and responsible health communication, encouraging strong editorial ownership and continuous skill development.
• Curated and synthesized information from multiple credible medical sources, transforming complex material into accessible, reader-friendly digital content.
• Oversaw editing, proofreading, and quality control to ensure all content met high standards of clarity, reliability, tone, and ethical responsibility.
• Collaborated with the photo and design teams to source medically accurate images and illustrations, improving visual clarity and reader engagement.

Jan 2013 – Feb 2014 · 1 yr 1 mo · Greater Chennai Area

• I was part of programme planning and also in-charge of research on social issues in Tamil Nadu. I created a roster of experts/speakers/analysts on a variety of subjects like politics, elections, socio-political trends, economics/business, international relations, lifestyle (society/arts/culture/theatre), cinema (specifically Southern cinema), etc. I also trained rookies to write news packages, voice overs and video texts.

Sep 2011 – Nov 2012 · 1 yr 2 mos · Greater Delhi Area

• I wrote feature stories, helped reporters with their stories, suggested leads, copy-edited their articles, worked with designers on page layout and provided assistance in production
• Edition in-charge of G20 (supplement): Headed an eight-member team of reporters/sub-editors that assisted me from story ideation to page production

Dec 2007 – Aug 2011 · 3 yrs 8 mos · Greater Chennai Area

• End-to-end responsibility of the city-based 6-page daily news supplement to the main paper. I worked with 8 reporters-cum-sub-editors, a dozen photographers and the marketing team. It also involved coordinating with the Chief Reporter to get issue-based stories, and the marketing department on ad placements and special supplements. In addition to assisting page designers, I also helped reporters with story angles and leads, copy-edited articles and worked within strict deadlines. I worked with the Chief Photographer to organise photo-shoots for lifestyle/trend stories. I took the initiative to introduce weekly columns, and was part of a team that revamped the former Expresso to City Express
• Plus, I have also written extensively on a range of topics like violence against women and children, including harassment, abuse and assault, child labour, environmental issues, challenges in higher education and also a weekly series on different careers students can pursue in fields like equestrian sports, medical animation, forest technology, graphic design, etc. I was also instrumental in getting many columnists to write for supplements.

Jul 2007 – Nov 2007 · 4 mos · Greater Chennai Area

• I handled www.bangalorelive.in, where I introduced daily ranking of movies and songs, made sure shortcuts for the same was displayed on the homepage. I gave story ideas to shoot videos for the site, provided news updates, wrote copy for videos, and showcased text and videos

Dec 2004 – Feb 2007 · 2 yrs 2 mos · Greater Chennai Area

• I worked primarily for Madras Plus, a city-based lifestyle supplement. I wrote extensively on Tamil cinema, interviewed all top actors, filmmakers, comedians and technicians of the time, and also managed to write most of the lead stories on Page 1 of the supplement. I also sub-edited copies, proof-read pages, coordinated with freelancers for stories and photographs, ideated and followed-up on their ideas for stories. Was put in-charge of a 8-page weekly tabloid, Times Neighbourhood-Anna Nagar, in which I wrote articles on civic issues in the area, and also coordinated with schools in the neighbourhood for campus updates