Anandi Chandrashekhar

Communications professional with over a decade of experience across journalism, platform research and institutional communications, including four years leading audience and content research for YouTube's India Culture & Trends programme and five years as a technology and markets correspondent for The Economic Times. Skilled at translating complex, technical and data-driven information into clear, engaging narratives for a wide range of audiences, and at managing multi-channel content and stakeholder relationships in fast-moving environments. Currently completing an MPhil in Digital Humanities at the University of Cambridge, researching AI platforms and content discovery.

Communications Assistant at St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge (2026-03 – Present)

• Manage the day-to-day editorial calendar and content production across the College's social, web and video channels, translating institutional priorities into clear, engaging narratives for prospective students, alumni and Fellows.
• Interviewed PhD researchers, Fellows and alumni working across STEM and specialist academic fields, translating dense research and subject matter into accessible video and website features for a general audience.
• Grew Instagram reach 226% and monthly YouTube views 366% through an analytics-led content strategy.
• Partner cross-departmentally with Admissions, Development, Tutorial and student welfare teams to align messaging and deliver digital collateral for major institutional campaigns, including Open Day, Giving Day and the College's 300th Anniversary.

Digital Media Consultant at Concrete Rose UK (youth homelessness charity) (2026-02 – Present)

• Developed a full communications and donor-acquisition strategy — including brand identity, visual templates and story-driven content — to help close a £40K annual funding gap.
• Built AI-assisted content workflows to enable a small team to produce consistent, high-quality output independently.

Program Manager, India Research at YouTube Culture & Trends (2024-06 – 2025-09)

• Authored a weekly executive briefing on creator and cultural trends, read by C-suite, sales and partnerships leaders across seven markets — the US, UK, Japan, South Korea and India among them — translating complex platform data into clear, decision-ready intelligence for senior stakeholders.
• Identified and profiled fintech and science creators making specialist, technical subject matter accessible to mainstream audiences, and packaged that ecosystem into intelligence brands and CXOs could act on but otherwise would not have found or understood on their own.
• Directed research that shaped how YouTube positioned its creator ecosystem to brand and advertising partners, working directly with commercial and partnerships teams to align insight with business priorities.
• Maintained working relationships across regional and cross-functional teams to keep research accurate and timely; monitored internal dashboards to track the accuracy of trend-prediction models.

Editor, India at YouTube Culture & Trends (2023-04 – 2024-06)

• Led a 20-person multilingual editorial team across multiple Indian languages and regions, setting editorial standards and managing a high-volume content pipeline end-to-end, from commissioning through quality control.
• Converted platform signals into strategic insight and decks used directly by marketing, sales and partnerships stakeholders in client and creator conversations.
• Established regional editorial playbooks with APAC teams across Japan, Indonesia, Australia and South Korea, aligning storytelling standards and working practices across culturally distinct markets and teams.
• Introduced AI-assisted research workflows to improve the speed and accuracy of insight production.

Content Strategist, Shorts at YouTube Culture & Trends (2021-07 – 2023-04)

• Produced strategic analysis on short-form video and discovery behaviour, translating platform data into editorial recommendations.
• Identified hyperlocal search and content trends that directly informed a global product feature rollout.

Senior Correspondent at The Economic Times (2016-06 – 2021-06)

• Produced 800+ news stories, features and explainers over five years, specialising in translating complex financial, banking and technology subject matter into clear, accessible reporting for a general readership — under daily deadline pressure.
• Covered India's stock markets and banking sector, turning dense financial data and executive commentary into digestible, decision-useful content for retail investors and general news readers.
• Reported on shipping and manufacturing industry hubs across South India, translating CXO-level technical and operational detail into accessible coverage for investors and the public.
• Set the reporting agenda on India's technology and startup sector, breaking stories on major conglomerates and emerging industries including crypto, SaaS and fintech; used SEO data to build new reporting streams reaching high-growth, technical audiences.
• Negotiated access to and managed press interactions with C-suite executives, policymakers and senior business leaders for high-profile national news events, then conducted those interviews across print, digital and podcast.
• Founding member of the newspaper's news podcasting unit, expanding storytelling into a new medium in response to shifting audience behaviour.

MPhil in Digital Humanities – University of Cambridge (2025-01 – 2026-01)

PG Diploma in Print Journalism – Asian College of Journalism (2015-01 – 2016-01)

BSc in Electronic Media – MOP Vaishnav College for Women (2009-01 – 2012-01)