If there's one thing the newsmedia industry needs in time of "tectonic change", it's leadership, something 128-year-old The Hindu addressed with a key appointment.

A little over two years ago - during some of the most trying times in its history - publisher Kasturi & Sons appointed former McKinsey & Company partner Rajiv Lochan as its managing director and chief executive, amid some comment and speculation, not least about his salary package which is said to include a "golden parachute" clause.

This week, delegates at the end of WAN-Ifra's India conference had the opportunity to look and learn. Lochan who is 45, leads all non-editorial operations and is a director of the family-controlled company. His background as a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia Business School, his career roles have been as chairman of Sughavazhvu Healthcare and an independent director of IFMR Holdings. An outsider looking in on the media industry and just what it needs at a time like this; the "tectonic change" quote is his.

And his message could be summarized as focusing on your strengths, on "what is the way of The Hindu".

Lochan talks of its tradition of journalism as a public service - "giving a voice to the natives" - and of technical and technological expertise. "So we went back and asked our tech people to step it up," he says.

The focus on readers and advertisers - selling engagement and solutions - is only part of it. His arrival during one of the company's toughest trading periods also made maintaining staff loyalty and commitment a challenge, especially when they were asked to forego benefits, wage increases and even their jobs. Some 2000 staff came off wage board remuneration scales (increasing the number sixfold) "by invitation", and another initiative has been to establish an academy where staff could be reskilled and perhaps gain portable qualifications.

As things get better - Lochan spoke of "a period of glorious prosperity", we hope not with tongue in cheek - there is also the issue of coping with those in a rush to get a share. "Being explicit" - about expectations and "unspoken values" - is important, and new codes of editorial and business values "will help us make smart decisions".

He urges transparency and says it's important to get to the heart of "what employees really want" - bringing a five-day week to a traditionally six-day cycle, for example - reward excellence and differentiate between performers and non-performers.

Later, in the conference's panel session, he emphasizes the need to "package what we have" and understand readers want rather than "frighten them away to Facebook".

Without claiming an outright success, he says the group is seeing reasonable results, with the fastest growth of any English-language daily as well as "decent copy prices".

Hopefully, there will be no need of that parachute: "We think we'll be well positioned as the economy straightens out," Lochan says. "If the readers are with us, nothing can stop us."

Peter Coleman

Pictured: Rajiv Lochan