The Indian Express appoints Nandagopal Rajan as editor, new media

Rajan has moved in from the India Today Group. This will be his second stint at the Express Group.

With an aim to strengthen its digital team, The Indian Express has roped in Nandagopal Rajan as editor, new media. He will report to Anant Goenka, director and head, new media, The Indian Express.

This is Rajan's second stint at the publication. He had worked with the group between 2006 and 2011.

Rajan has moved in from the India Today Group, where he was associate editor at Business Today. He was also in charge of the group's tech magazine, Gadgets & Gizmos, and guided the tech coverage for online and print properties. He joined the group in 2011.

Rajan's role will be to keep up the momentum in the Express group's exponential growth in traffic through the Assembly Elections in 2014.

The group's properties on the digital front include IndianExpress.com, FinancialExpress.com, Expressindia.com, ScreenIndia.com, Loksatta.com and Jansatta.com. Its B2B magazine portfolio includes Express Computer, Express Pharma, Express Healthcare, Express Travel World and Food and Hospitality World.

Rajan says, "No one covers politics like the Express and this exciting election season, we'd like IndianExpress.com to be the destination for audiences around the world."

He further adds that it is like coming home for him. Besides working with some of India's finest journalists, he looks forward to expanding the digital content team to cover more topic areas such as entertainment and technology. Express' readers are fans and the site has a low bounce rate despite a high growth in traffic, he adds.

Goenka says, "We're thrilled to have Nandu join and lead the team -- six years as a leader on Express' desk has given him a nose for news, and at his last assignment, he has done some very impressive work covering global technology."

Rajan has more than 14 years of experience and has worked with HT, India Today Group and The Indian Express. He has spent more than five years at HT (2000-06), a little over six years at The Indian Express and another two years at the India Today Group.

According to The Express Group, its new media division tracks 80 million page views a month. Its products include web, mobile, and apps for iOS and Android mobile phones and tablets.

The group has won gold in Social Media at the World Association of Newspapers' Digital Media Asia Awards in November, 2012 and has been nominated for the yet-to-be-announced awards, this year.