WASHINGTON: Yet another scribe of Indian origin has been appointed to a key position in the highlycompetitive world of American journalism. Tunku Varadarajan, a writer-at-large for the Daily Beast and a veteran of Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and the Times of London, has been named editor of Newsweek’s international editions.
The celebrated American newsweekly, which recently merged with the Daily Beast after passing through a financial crisis, is currently in the process of an extensive makeover.
Newsweek’s crisis had come to a head last summer, when the Washington Post decided to sell the magazine.
Shortly after the sale, Newsweek editor Jon Meacham and international editor Fareed Zakaria left the magazine.
Several other established journalists of the weekly followed suit. A British Indian, Varadarajan would be taking the position that Zakaria held for close to a decade.
Announcing the appointment, Tina Brown, editor of both Newsweek and the Daily Beast, said in an e-mail to employees: “I am delighted to inform you that Tunku Varadarajan, current national affairs correspondent and writer- at-large for The Daily Beast, will be editor of Newsweek’s international edition.” An Oxford alum who began his career in Britain, the 48-year-old Varadarajan joined the Daily Beast from Forbes where he was executive editor of opinion. Earlier, he had worked as assistant managing editor at the Wall Street Journal and bureau chief in New York and Madrid for the Times of London.
Varadarajan has been a clinical professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University, an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and a lecturer in law at Trinity College, Oxford.