M V Shreyams Kumar, managing director of the Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Company, was on Friday elected president of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS), an apex body of publishers of newspapers, magazines, and periodicals.
Kumar succeeds Rakesh Sharma of Aaj Samaj newspaper.
During the 85th annual general meeting of the INS, which was held through video-conferencing, Vivek Gupta of Sanmarg was elected deputy president, and Lokmat's Karan Rajendra Darda became vice president. Also, Amar Ujala's Tanmay Maheshwari was elected as honorary treasurer of the society.
Newly elected president Kumar has been a former Rajya Sabha MP. Apart from that, he has been a two-time MLA from Kerala and a member of the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United).
With a PG diploma in business administration, Kumar has been instrumental in expanding the presence of the publications of the Mathrubhumi group in the media landscape. Nine of the fourteen editions of the Mathrubhumi Daily were started under his watch. Also, Kumar helped in launching various platforms of Mathrubhumi to cater to the Malayalee diaspora living in West Asia and other foreign nations.
The 41-member executive committee includes Shivendra Gupta of Business Standard, S Balasubramanian Adityan of Daily Thanthi, Samahit Bal of Pragativadi, K N Tilak Kumar of Deccan Herald & Prajavani, Viveck Goenka of The Indian Express, Atideb Sarkar of The Telegraph, K R P Reddy of Sakshi, and Pratap G Pawar of Sakal.