Chennai: Our mornings at News Today begins with a greeting to our beloved security officer Shahjahan, who never fails to bring a smile to our faces, giving us the positivity needed for the day ahead.
WHEN THE TIME IS NINE…
The first challenge that we face is making sure that we reach office by 9 am. Though we are given a grace period of ten minutes, the universe always conspires to make sure that we are late and eventually get pulled up by our Associate Editors M Bhaskar Sai and M Bharat Kumar.
DISCUSSION TIME
As everyone slowly settles down, it is time to discuss ideas. Each reporter puts forth his/her story for the day. Then, the page on which the said report is to be carried is decided. But honestly, the first 15-20 minutes go by with small talk among the journos about the current happenings and latest updates in their respective beats. Everyone at the editorial desk has multiple roles to play, with each member quickly moving on to their next work after completing one.
‘SKETCH POTIRLAMA SIR’?
Although our edition starts by 9 in the morning, things hot up after 11.30 am. This is when the story ideas for page one, are lined up. This is also the time when Bhaskar asks our designing head, Sundararajan, “Sketch potirlama?” (asking him if they can plan for stories on the page).
Slowly, the edition’s deadline starts nearing and it is during this hour that updates start flowing in rapidly. Our Senior Sub-Editor Karthikeyan Halan’s name will be called to make sure that he had noticed a story that has developed recently. He, in turn will be calling people from almost every department to ensure that everything needed for that particular story has reached the designer.
VANTAGE POINT
As the clock keeps ticking past 1 pm, everyone keeps a tab on news updates, carrying out modifications in the completed pieces, tracking designers to know the status of the ongoing pages, listening to live updates from various souces, making sure the online edition and News Today’s social media updates by Associate Editor R Chitra and team, are done without any disturbance.
ONLINE AFTERNOONS
It is the “phews” by our seniors, that signal the end of the day’s edition. After enjoying a short lunch break, we all get back to work- this time for the online edition headed by Chitra.
Right from morning, the internet team toils hard to make sure that updates are posted at the earliest. In the afternoon, the rest of the group joins them to update the afternoon’s happenings.
Reporters who are planning a special story for the next day, start working on those stories. It is around 3 pm that printed copies reach the editorial desk. These are grabbed by reporters to see how their respective stories have come out in the printed version.
BLESSED, AREN’T WE?
I can vouch for the fact that this workspace is like none other. The newsroom comfort that we get here has to be seen to be believed.
For readers, News Today is a paper, but for us News Today is an emotion.
EDITOR’S TOUCH
Take a guess from where the twists and turns to a day’s paper come from? Be it any crisp story idea or a hot update – everything pops out after the brief discussions between our Associate Editors with our Editor T R Jawahar.
He helps frame news and gives an in-depth angle to any issue, prompting us to feel, “Why didn’t this idea strike us first?” No wonder he is a doyen in the field of journalism for nearly three decades.
After the pages are done, he also goes through every single news piece and gives his comments about the way it has come out. Whenever the news room faces a crisis, it is his motivation that inspires and makes us go forward.