I strongly believe in owner mentality: Riti Jagoorie

Hachette India's new managing director on her vision for the company and the future of the publishing industry

- Somak Ghoshal

On June 12, Thomas Abraham, managing director of the India chapter of the multinational publishing firm Hachette, announced his retirement after spending 18 years with the company. Since 2007, when he joined Hachette after leaving his role as CEO and president of Penguin India, Abraham has steered the company from an ₹18 crore startup to a ₹100 crore publishing house. As he moves on, Riti Jagoorie, vice-president of product and marketing at Hachette, will be taking over as managing director from January 2026.

Arguably the first woman to take on a CEO-level role in the India chapter of a multinational publishing firm, Jagoorie has a lot on her plate. She started her career at Scholastic in 2005, where she ran the Book Club channel for three years before moving to Hachette as a product manager. "Books are my passion and this was my calling—that was clear to me at a very young age," as Jagoorie says. "(The Twilight series) was taking over the world when I joined Hachette and I saw firsthand what a massive bestseller can do for you. That fad lasted many years and then Gone Girl arrived and with it a spate of psychological thrillers. Right now, it's the BookTok bestsellers that are ruling the roost."

While big ideas continue to drive the non-fiction list, "what has remained constant is that we are primarily a back-list driven market," Jagoorie adds.

Lounge spoke to her in an email interview about her new role and forecast for the future of publishing. Edited excerpts: