iNDICA NEWS BUREAU–
Madhav Chinnappa, the Indian American director of Google News, one of the company’s most successful and widely-used products, has been laid off in the latest round of tech sector sackings in Silicon Valley.
In his LinkedIn post on Saturday, Chinnappa wrote, “I am leaving Google as part of the Google layoffs. I am on gardening leave at the moment which allows too much time to contemplate work, career, life etc. In the end, I am proud of what I have been able to achieve during my almost 13 years at Google.”
He added about his work at Google: “From Digital News Initiative (which wasn’t just a Fund — though a wise person did say that it helped kickstart a European media R&D culture) to the Google News Initiative Innovation Challenges — and of course Ludovic Blecher’s brilliant idea: JERF, the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund which showcased the best of Google: helping where it could when a vulnerable part of the news ecosystem needed it most and involving 300 Googlers.”
Google has laid off, or has announced to lay off, 12,000 employees since January 2023, or about 6% of the staff, according to layoffs.fyi, a site that tracks American layoffs across various sectors.
Chinnappa said, “I am in the privileged position of being able some time to figure that out. In the near term, I have some pressing family issues that need my fuller attention, so in the spirit of the Zen proverb that the tea cup must be empty before it can be full, I will take August off then spend September looking after my mum in India and only start thinking about work in October with a view to doing more things in 2024.”
Indian American head of Google News Madhav Chinnappa laid off after 13 years
