The high-profile chief executive officer and executive director of Sakshi media group Vinay Maheshwari has resigned from his post a few days ago, for reasons known only to him and the Sakshi management.
According to inside sources in Sakshi media house, Vinay Maheshwari was replaced by senior auditor P Sanath Kumar Reddy, who is said to be very close to YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The sudden exit of Vinay Maheshwari, who was hired by the Sakshi management more than three years ago, was rude jolt to the administration of the media house.
Before joining Sakshi, Vinay Maheshwari was working as senior vice-president of Dainik Bhaskar Corporation, which is also a major media group in the country.
He was hired apparently keeping in view his rich experience in the print business and the management thought he would bring in a fresh perspective to the organisation.
Though there were certain allegations against Vinay Maheshwari, especially with regard to his attitude, he is learnt to have tried hard to bring Sakshi back on track.
However, the overall slump in the print media market after the onset of Covid-19 pandemic has affected Sakshi media badly and like all the other print media ventures, Sakshi too suffered huge losses, despite the support from the AP government.
According to sources, Sakshi newspaper is now undergoing major changes in the administration. It has now been divided into four areas – Major cities, Hyderabad, Rural Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Each area has been entrusted to in-charge CEOs, who are given all powers to oversee circulation, advertisement, readership growth and campaign for the ruling YSRC in Andhra.
And Sanath Kumar would be an overall head of all the four wings and he would review the progress from time to time. He would be reporting to Bharati Reddy directly, sources added.