Yahoo’s editor-in-chief Jai Singh has quit the internet firm, just a day after CEO Marissa Mayer fired her COO Henrique De Castro, according to independent tech news site Re/code.
Yahoo’s media unit will now be led by Chief Marketing Officer Kathy Savitt, said Re/code, citing an internal memo.
It was not clear what prompted Singh’s exit from Yahoo, according to the report.
Singh began working at Yahoo in 2011.
A Yahoo spokesperson confirmed the news with TechCrunch, another tech news site.
“Appointing a marketing person to be in charge of editorial is probably enough of a reason for many journalists to run screaming from the building,” Re/code said.
In addition, Re/code citing sources said that “media product head SVP of Homepage and Verticals Mike Kerns – who is very well liked internally, although not a media exec per se – will now be the boss of both Ken Fuchs, head of entertainment, games and sports and Rob Barrett, who helms news and finance.”
The well-regarded Singh arrived at Yahoo from his managing editor position at Huffington Post in mid-2011. Prior to that, he created CNET News.com in 1996.
While the firing of Henrique de Castro came with enormous financial potential, it is not clear that Singh’s departure will cost the company much financially, TechCrunch said.
“Yahoo has spent big money to hire mass-market talent like tech journalist David Pogue and media personality Katie Couric. Perhaps those hires did not suit Singh,” it said.
It is more likely that Yahoo’s new direction under Mayer didn’t suit Singh, or he was made internally redundant, it said.
Yahoo’s editor-in-chief Jai Singh quits added by Indian newspaper Sydney on
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