Chennai: After an elaborated career of more than four decades, Ninan Thariyan has retired from his media career.
After a stint of 6 years, Thariyan retired from DT Nxt (Daily Thanthi Group) on 30th June. As DT Nxt CEO, he conceived, planned & launched DT NXT, the English language newspaper from the stables of Daily Thanthi, the Tamil language newspapers. He joined DT Nxt in June 2015 after retiring from Times of India Group.
During his 35 years with the Times of India Group as Vice President at Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd, Chennai, Thariyan was directly responsible for revenue generation from Ad Sales, co-created Brand Activations, media-neutral communication solutions advertisers.
He was responsible for Operational issues such as improving operational efficiencies, customer service, manpower development and content management of features/supplements.
Thariyan managed a team of above 175 executives across the organization and responsible for revenue turnover of over Rs. 300 Crores from advertisers in the Tamil Nadu region
Thariyan’s Milestones & Achievements include the successful launch of The Times of India, Chennai edition followed by rest of Tamil Nadu, where he spearheaded the edition and made it profitable from year one.
Thariyan was responsible for maintaining a healthy Year-On-Year growth for the Times of India, Tamil Nadu and doubled the advertising revenue in under four years.
During his stint with TOI, he launched ‘Billion Hearts Beating’ – an all India cause-marketing initiative to create awareness on heart diseases with Apollo Hospitals became a referral point in client engagement.
The Billion Hearts Beating campaign also went on to win major awards, namely the “Best Integrated Marketing Campaign” in the Asia Pacific at the WAN-IFRA Awards.
Under Thariyan’s leadership, TOI Tamil Nadu Won the “Best performing branch” award several times. Thariyan also conceptualized and launched a premier brand engagement platform of the Economic Times brand, ET Golf, currently an annual sports property from ST stable.
He was the winner of the first-ever Chairman’s Award at The Times of India for Excellence. Thariyan has also bagged the Vice-Chairman’s award for exceptional contribution to Brand Capital (incidentally, this was the only time the Vice-Chairman announced an excellence award).
An alumnus of Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage, USA, started his career as District Manager- Circulation, The Orange County Register.
Speaking to Medianews4u, Thariyan, a print evangelist and an optimist, all along said, “In a career spanning 41 years, I have seen the ups and downs in the newspaper industry. I am bewildered by the diminishing frequency of the growth – maturity – decline cycles, with reduced intervals at each stage. The pandemic has played a very crucial role in shrinking the sunset phase.”
“I have been a print evangelist and an optimist all along. I don’t see any threatening situation for newspaper companies ready to embrace changes by adapting to technology and reader preferences,“ he added.
Speaking on the challenges faced by Newspapers, Thariyan said, “Newspapers face similar challenges faced by other product categories – multiplicity and choices available for readers and advertisers. It is not a unique situation that can be highlighted. However, print is being edged out in the new media mix, or its share is being diluted in favour of digital media. This is because of the perception that the cost-benefit equation is not favourable for print and not its lack of efficacy as such. “
“I also wonder how effective are the measuring techniques of response to advertisements. Tracking the response of print advertisements remains a challenge. Factoring the readers’ trust with newspapers, print continues to enjoy a special position in the minds of readers and advertisers alike,“ he added.
Medianews4u wishes Ninan Thariyan success in all his future endeavours.
