Mr Naresh Mohan, well-known media leader and a former member of the Board of Directors of The Statesman Ltd. died here on Thursday morning.
Mr Mohan was admitted to a city hospital a few days back. He suffered multi-organ failure leading to his demise.
His last rites were performed at the Lodhi Road Crematorium this afternoon in the presence of his family, friends and admirers.
Mr Mohan served The Hindustan Times in various management capacities, including as Executive President, for almost three decades before agreeing to become at the urging of colleagues Executive Director of the ailing United News of India news agency. He was also a member of The Tribune Trust for several years and served with distinction on the boards of The Statesman Limited and Jagran Prakashan Limited. Mr Mohan represented The Sunday Statesman in the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) for nearly two decades, until he decided last year that his health did not permit the engagement.
Over the course of a career spanning more than five decades, he had served as Chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulations and United News of India, and been President of INS in the early 1990s. He had also been a member of the Press Council of India and the industry representative on Wage Boards.
RK adds: Nareshji, as he was called by everyone who knew him, had been a close friend for more than 45 years, indeed from the day I entered the profession of journalism as a trainee in The Hindustan Times in the late 1970s. Over the years, we worked closely together on the boards of United News of India, INS and The Statesman, where he could ignite any discussion with his profound knowledge of any subject concerning newspaper operations.
Blessed with a razor-sharp memory, Nareshji’s knowledge of the industry was encyclopaedic. He was the first port of call for information on the government’s present and past media policy and the historical battles fought by media institutions. Not without reason was he called the “Bhishma Pitamah” of the newspaper industry.
