DNA's Rakesh Gopal to head sales and marketing at Businessworld

Gopal has about two decades of experience that covers various daily publications.

Fortnightly business magazine Businessworld has appointed Rakesh Gopal as director, sales and marketing. This is Gopal's first stint in a magazine; he has worked with various daily publications for more than two decades. He will continue to be based in Delhi and will lead all sales and marketing activities at Businessworld nationally.

Gopal moves in from DNA newspaper, where he was vice-president, sales. He has more than two decades of experience in media sales.

Annurag Batra, chairman, Businessworld, says, "Gopal is a seasoned media professional. His rich experience in leading sales teams, especially for print publications, will be of immense value to our various expansion programmes."

Gopal has been in sales throughout his career. He started his career as assistant manager at The Pioneer in 1991. He moved on to join Hindustan Times as manager in 1999. After HT, he joined Diligent Media Corporation as general manager, heading sales for its daily newspaper DNA, in 2005.

After a little over three years at the company he moved on to join Mail Today as head, Delhi (East and South). There, he led three regions and was responsible for revenue generation with a team of 30 people reporting to him. Later, he joined Mogae Media in 2012 as senior vice-president; his stint lasted six months. Mogae Media was the sole vendor that marketed the advertising inventory of Airtel.

He returned to DNA as vice-president, sales by the end of 2012.

Gopal says, "It's nice to be a part of a magazine that I have been reading since the beginning of my career. Of late, I have been watching the brand become really aggressive and improve its editorial quality even further. In today's age the clients are looking at good ideas and 360-degree solutions. I find there is a big opportunity wherein BW becomes the platform for complete integrated solutions."

For the record, the magazine was in news in February, 2013 for shifting its frequency from weekly to fortnightly. The publication was acquired by GBN Media in October, 2013.