Effective tomorrow, Yahoo’s Editor-In-Chief Jai Singh is out at the company. A Yahoo spokesperson confirmed the news with TechCrunch following earlier media reports of his exit.
Yahoo is currently undergoing a period of executive turbulence, with today’s news coming on the heels of the yesterday’s firing of its chief operating officer.
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. Of course, losing your editorial leader as you ramp up your content strategy is hardly a promising sign, especially as his self-recusal from the company was initially described as just that: quitting.
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’s more likely that Yahoo’s new direction under Mayer — Singh was hired before Mayer became the CEO of the company — didn’t suit Singh, or he was made internally redundant. Yahoo declined to provide additional guidance on the nature of the departure.
Yahoo is a company remade. Under the guidance of Mayer, it has refocused its product vision, purchased talent at a rapid rate, and expanded its native content efforts. Given a new dollar flow toward content and the like, Singh could have enjoyed a rising profile inside the corporation.
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