Although there are many contenders for the fabled job, which fell vacant following the resignation on Tuesday of Tina Brown, industry grapevine puts Mehta on top of the list. An announcement is expected on Monday.

Mehta has carried Knopf to dizzying levels in the years he has been at the helm. SI Newhouse, the media magnate who publishes New Yorker, has a soft spot for Knopf, having hired Robert Gottlieb to replace William Shawn as editor in the mid 1980s. If Mehta succeeds Brown, he would have pipped several prominent journalists including Vanity Fair Editor-in-Chief Graydon Carter and GQ Editor Art Cooper. Mehta, however, could not be reached. Michael Kinsley of Slate magazine and former editor of The New Republic, Kurt Andersen, former editor of New York Magazine, and David Remnick, a PulitzerPrize winning author are also said to be in the running for the job.

Mehta has relatively little journalistic experience but is highly regarded in publishing circles. He is married to Gita Mehta, daughter of the late Biju Patnaik, and author of Karma Cola and The River Sutra among other books.