Google’s Director of News Laid Off after 13 years of Service, Shares plans to return to India

New Delhi, 23rd July 2023: Madhav Chinnappa, Google’s director of news, has been let go. “I am leaving Google as part of the Google layoffs,” Chinnappa wrote in a LinkedIn post on Saturday. Google has joined the ranks of technology companies that are laying off workers in order to deal with the worldwide recession.

Chinnappa expressed pride in what he has accomplished during his nearly 13 years at Google.

He wrote, “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.”

Chinnappa, who worked from London, stated that he intends to take a month off before looking for new options or deciding his next professional steps.

He said, “And what now: I am in the privileged position of being able (to take) 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.”

Google announced significant layoffs in January of this year, affecting over 12,000 individuals worldwide, while the corporation revealed job losses at its mapping software Waze last month. Stories of employees affected by the layoffs have emerged on social media since then.

Some employees were laid off while on maternity leave, while others were put off while on vacation. Notably, some of Google’s top executives, including the company’s Mental Health Head, were among those laid go as part of the reduction.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai had announced in January that the company had decided to cut around 12,000 jobs due to ongoing economic struggles.