Media reporter Somaiya leaving NY Times

New York Times business editor Dean Murphy sent out the following announcement on Wednesday:

Ravi Somaiya is leaving The Times to work at “Vice on HBO,” the news magazine show that will soon launch a daily half-hour newscast.

Ravi has been a reporter on the media desk for the past three years, covering print and digital media companies. In recent months, he has taken on some tumultuous subjects – including the turmoil at the Los Angeles Times, the mysterious ownership transfer to Sheldon Adelson in Las Vegas, and the bizarre episode in which Sean Penn went to Mexico to interview the drug baron El Chapo.

Ravi started with The Times in 2010 as a freelancer in London, working with John Burns and establishing his reporting chops on stories about Islamic terrorism, Wikileaks and the NewsCorp phone hacking scandal. He joined the staff in New York in 2012 as an intermediate reporter on the rewrite desk.

Ravi has been a collegial presence in the newsroom, quick to help colleagues and offer insight into stories on the media beat and elsewhere.

We’ll wish him well with a send-off toast at Party Island on Friday, his last day.