Gopal Raju

Gopal Raju (3 January 1928 – 10 April 2008) was an Indian-born American publisher, editor, journalist, businessman and philanthropist. He was considered to be a pioneer of Indian American ethnic media in the United States.

Raju launched the first successful Indian newspaper in the US, India Abroad, in 1970. The India Abroad newspaper refers to itself as the "oldest Indian newspaper published in North America." The newspaper quickly became an influential voice for the growing Indian American community in the United States. Raju's India Abroad was considered to be an important milestone for the growth of ethnic media in the U.S and one of the most credible Indian American publications.The Economist, a respected British weekly international affairs magazine, once referred to Raju's India Abroad as a daily publication of "unusually high quality".

In 1997, Raju held talks to merger India Abroad with India-West, an ethnic Indian American newspaper published in California. Raju and India-West publisher, Ramesh Murarka, went as far a jointly purchasing a building in San Leandro, California, to house the offices of the proposed, combined newspaper. Under the proposal, the existing India Abroad offices would have become the East Coast offices of the new newspaper, while the offices of India-West in California would have become the West Coast headquarters of the publication. However, in the end Raju and Murarka decided to abandon the proposed merger of the publications. Raju later sold India Abroad in April 2001 to Rediff.com, which currently owns and operates the newspaper.

Raju also founded the India Abroad News Service, which was later renamed the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS). The IANS, which is headquartered in New Dehli, focuses its reporting on issues affecting India, South Asia and the Indian Diaspora around the world.

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