Not a tragedy, but averting one, became the bigger news

In journalism, we say, when something goes wrong, it becomes news. The bigger the misfortune (if it can be quantified in some manner), the bigger the news.

One of my editors used to say, if there is an accident, don't just go by the number of people who died, look at also the number of people who were saved or who escaped death.

Image source: Wikimedia

This is what came to my mind when I was following reports about the dramatic and extraordinary scenes inside the cockpit of the Flydubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, carrying over 150 passengers, mainly Israelis.

Fortunately, nothing happened. There was no hijack. The plane didn't crash. It landed safely. There was no loss of lives. Two people suffered injuries.

It was such big news; not because of any misfortune or an accident. On the contrary, it was a providential escape from a massive tragedy. An escape from a calamity that would have befallen not just the 150-odd passengers and crew of the plane but an entire region as well.

What happened on board the flight was something unprecedented. One pilot stabbed another pilot while the plane was cruising at an altitude of over 34,000 ft. Israeli PM Netanyahu said it was an attempt to crash the plane.

The pilot, who resisted the attack of the co-pilot and got stabbed, was an Indian, Smit Machchhar, who worked for an Indian airline, SpiceJet, for 11 years before joining the Dubai airline. We would know more about what happened once he recovers and gives his testimony to the investigators.

The world first got to know about this when the plane signalled the emergency code, squawk 7700, and later squawk 7500, which means hijacking.

On hearing the screams and chaos inside the cockpit, passengers and crew broke in and overpowered the attacker. Two of the passengers were pilots, or at least they knew the controls of an airplane. They took charge. 

By then, the plane had dropped from 34,000 feet to around 16,600 feet in just over two minutes. The two manually guided the plane to land safely at Tabuk in Saudi Arabia.

It was such immense luck that there were two pilots among the passengers who could take control of the plane and land it safely. I dread to think what would have happened if that wasn't the case.

If the plane had crashed, it's anybody's guess how Israel would have reacted. The already unstable and volatile region would have just descended further into unthinkable turmoil.

Why 'The Washington Post' lay-offs matter

Today's edition of
The Washington Post

I learnt about what happened at The Washington Post through a notification on my mobile about Ishaan Tharoor's post on X.

(Ishaan Tharoor is an American journalist who worked for The Time and later for The Washington Post. He is also the son of Shashi Tharoor, a former Indian diplomat who served as the Under-Secretary-General at the UN, and is currently an Indian politician representing the Congress party in the Lower House of Parliament.)

I have been laid off today from the @washingtonpost, along with most of the International staff and so many other wonderful colleagues. I’m heartbroken for our newsroom and especially for the peerless journalists who served the Post internationally — editors and correspondents…

— Ishaan Tharoor (@ishaantharoor) February 4, 2026

Approximately one-third of the newspaper's workforce was laid off. More than 300 journalists in total. The standalone sports section and the Book World section are gone. 

Foreign bureaux across Asia (including the one in New Delhi) and the Middle East are shut. The metro desk, once 40 reporters strong, has been reduced to a dozen. 

The daily flagship news podcast, Post Reports, has been suspended, and deep cuts made to the photography and design departments.

Executive Editor Matt Murray described the move as a "strategic reset" to ensure long-term survival amid falling subscriber numbers and competition from AI-led news aggregation. Shortly after these cuts, on February 8, CEO Will Lewis resigned from the paper. 

Pranshu Verma's last story for The Washington Post 
from New Delhi in the February 3 edition.

JOURNALISTIC HIGHS

Think of The Washington Post, and it's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein who come to mind. These two young reporters, in the 1970s, began investigating what looked like a minor burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex.

One lead led to another. They didn't give up. Ably backed by their editor Ben Bradlee and publisher Katharine Graham, the two uncovered a massive conspiracy -- which came to be known as the Watergate Scandal -- that went all the way to the White House. President Richard Nixon had to resign in 1974.

Easily one of the best works in journalism ever. It is all well chronicled in the book All The President's Men, and also in the film by the same name. The book is available on Amazon and the film is available on YouTube.

In fact, the 1970s were the golden years for the Post. Only a few years earlier, it had published, defying government pressure, the Pentagon Papers — a top-secret U.S. Department of Defense report on the Vietnam War. (The New York Times also published them.)

OWNERSHIP CHANGES

Founded in 1877, The Washington Post struggled financially for decades. Then, financier Eugene Meyer purchased it in 1933. Under Meyer and his successors, particularly his daughter Katharine Graham, the Post became a sort of role model for journalists around the world.

For 80 years, the Post was run by the Meyer-Graham family. It prioritised its mission over short-term profits, took risks, and invested in expensive investigations.

Then came the internet and social media in the late 1990s and 2000s, impacting newspapers. They changed entirely the way people consumed news, but more importantly, how much they were willing to pay for it.

With print advertising collapsing and circulation dropping, even the Meyer-Graham family's wealth couldn't insulate the Post from being affected.

In 2013, the family made a momentous decision. They sold The Washington Post to to Nash Holdings, a holding company owned by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, for $250 million.

It was sad. But there was some hope. Because Bezos was one of the richest in the world and he understood technology in ways that traditional publishers didn't. Maybe he had the solution on how to make journalism financially viable in the digital age.

That hope wasn't misplaced. The paper invested heavily in digital infrastructure, and it saw an increase in subscriptions.

But that didn't last long. The Post simply couldn't find its way forward in this modern tech-driven media world. Revenes and circulation began to fall.

COST OF RUNNING A NEWSROOM

Quality journalism is very expensive. You need a big team of journalists. They need to be paid their salaries, as well as travel and boarding expenses if they have to go outstation. Maintaining a bureau abroad is even more expensive.

A newsroom needs a big team of copy editors to work on the reporters' copy, correct errors, and fact-check; lawyers to review possible defamatory claims; photographers and videographers; digital teams to work on video and audio, to build and maintain websites, apps, and social media streams.

It is all very cost-intensive.

Now, if there is a layoff, that means fewer journalists will have to handle a bigger volume of work. That means quality declines.

COLLAPSE OF MONOPOLY AND REVENUE MODEL

Those were the days when everyone turned to newspapers for everything — both readers as well as advertisers.

If you wanted to buy a car, sell a house, or find a job, you looked advertisements. If you wanted to know what was happening in your city or the world, you bought a newspaper. Publishers charged advertisers a hefty sum.

The internet completely destroyed this model. Advertisers don't need newspapers. They send their messages directly to their specific target audience for free, or maybe a fraction of the cost.

News too comes free. Why buy a newspaper when you can get news from several newspapers online virtually at no cost?

Social media has only made things worse. Very few people now look for, or read, or listen to news. They just discover it (mainly clickbait stories) on algorithm-powered platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc. And of course, there are "very credible" WhatsApp forwards from unknown people too!

While these tech companies make money, the actual sources of news (the media organisations) on these platforms get virtually nothing.

Now with artificial intelligence, you don't even click on news links to read a story. The AI reads a vast amount of articles on a particular subject for you and gives you a well-drafted summary! So, now, even the clicks are gone!

In short, the business model that sustained journalism for more than 100 years has simply collapsed.

WORLDWIDE PHENOMENON

The Washington Post isn't the only organisation going through this phase. The Los Angeles Times had multiple rounds of layoffs. NBC News, CBS News, etc., have all reduced their staff.

The Evening Standard in London, a newspaper with almost 200 years of history, in 2024 converted its newspaper from a daily format to a weekly format due to financial constraints, and in the process laid off 150 employees, including many journalists.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Radio Canada announced in 2023 that they would eliminate approximately 600 jobs and not fill 200 existing vacancies, because of financial constraints.

It's not just legacy print media. Even digital media organisations are cutting staff. In 2023, BuzzFeed shut down its news division, and Vice Media filed for bankruptcy.

In India too, almost all big media houses have seen layoffs over the past several years.

IT'S NOT ALWAYS ABOUT MONEY

Journalism is not marketing or sales. Work cannot be quantified. It's never about numbers.

This is probably the only industry where the product (the newspaper/magazine) is sold at a price far lower than the cost price.

Most media organisations have always struggled to make ends meet. They survive mostly by cross-subsidising (the profits from a successful product/service are used to offset the losses of another).

WHITHER JOURNALISM?

The reasoning behind the The Washington Post layoffs is that because of shrinking revenues, the Post wants to focus now on fewer areas (mainly Washington and the rest of the US) rather than cover everything around the world.

To be fair, Jeff Bezos has every right to run the paper the way he wants. If he wants to take the Post in a totally different direction, that's entirely his call.

But what is worrying is the broader impact on journalism.

Since anyone with an internet connection can now post any information in the public domain, the definition of news itself seems to have changed. In fact, unverified and sensational information has a higher likelihood of being passed around as news.

Very few people are interested in a balanced and well-rounded coverage of an issue. People want only information that aligns with their own line of thinking. They are lost in the comforts of the echo chamber. Contrarian views are usually rubbished and dismissed contemptuously.

Democracy requires an informed citizenry. When newsrooms shrink, many important news events aren't covered. Even if they do get covered, it is not comprehensive work. The space for informed public debate also shrinks.

Journalism is not public relations. Journalism is about looking at all aspects of an issue. It's about debates covering diverse perspectives. It's about uncomfortable truths. It's the Fourth Estate (the others being the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary).

So where does journalism go from here?

There are no easy answers, because we're in a period of painful transition. One, the old business model is dead and the new model hasn't yet emerged. Two, public relations and sensationalism are increasingly mistaken for journalism.

Media houses are experimenting with different revenue models. One is the subscription model; either the whole website is behind a paywall, or a part of it is. Newspapers and magazines are increasing their cover prices.

Another is having non-profit ownership, wherein there is no pressure on the media house to generate returns for the investors or owners.

There is a lot that the news-reading public can do as well.

One, pay for good journalism. 

Two, never forward or put into the public domain information that is unverified or speculative.

Three, don't just read the headlines and short summary. Read the whole story.

Four, remember the value of journalism — it is too precious to be allowed to die.

Mark Tully: The voice that defined India

Photo courtesy: BBC/Getty Images

The news of Mark Tully’s passing in Delhi yesterday feels like the end of an era. For me, he was among the earliest voices on the radio that I remember. My fascination with the radio began in my school days in the mid-1970s, and back then, the day always started with the BBC.

At 7.15 am was the 15-minute South Asia Special, which provided a detailed look at regional events, especially in India. It was followed at 7.30 am by the nine-minute top-of-the-hour news bulletin (India is five and a half hours ahead of GMT). Then came the six-minute British Press Review, and at 7.45 am was the Radio News Reel featuring dispatches from BBC correspondents worldwide.

(Now, there is no Radio News Reel; the correspondents’ reports are merged into longer news-based programmes. There is no South Asia Special either. I doubt if there is a press review.)

At 8 am, we would switch to the Hindi news bulletin and then the English news at 8.10 am on All India Radio. (Now AIR is known as Akashvani and those morning news bulletins are of 15-minute duration.)

AN INDIAN AT HEART

The BBC was not just a window to the world. Mark Tully’s reports gave a well-rounded perspective to events in India too, which the news on AIR, the government broadcaster, lacked. 

Interestingly, Tully didn't even start as a reporter; he joined the BBC in 1965 as an administrative assistant. He gradually worked his way up to become the most recognisable voice of India to the rest of the world. 

Mark Tully was never just a Western broadcaster stationed in India. He understood the soul of this country; not surprising, considering that he was born in Kolkata (then Calcutta). His mother too was born in Bengal, and her family had deep roots in the country as administrators and traders for generations.

Tully never saw India through the stereotypical lens of "a land of snake-charmers and rope tricks." He was able to understand the historical and cultural contexts to many socio-political developments here, and so his reportage often sounded quite different. He also turned down relocation to other countries and to BBC’s London studio, and he preferred to make India his permanent home.

"TULLY SAHIB"

Mark Tully’s style of narration was unique, perhaps a bit atypical for a broadcaster, but it was his in-depth knowledge that won people over. His fluency in Hindi gave him access to the small towns and villages that other foreign reporters couldn't reach, endearing him to common people who affectionately called him "Tully Sahib” (Tully Sir.)

He has written a few books. The most well-known are: Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle (1985), co-authored with his colleague Satish Jacob, on the events leading up to the storming of the Golden Temple in Amritsar; and No Full Stops in India (1988), a collection of essays. They are essential reading for anyone trying to understand the socio-political fabric of the country.

PERSONAL ENCOUNTER

I was a big fan of Mark Tully right from my school days, and he played no small role in shaping my interest in journalism. So, it was a heartbreak when it was announced in 1994 that he was resigning from the BBC in protest against the corporate structures and procedures that the broadcaster began adopting.

In October 2010, Tully was in Bengaluru to deliver a lecture on religious pluralism, and I was fortunate enough to be granted an interview with him. I am searching my home for the photographs I had taken and the full recording of the interview; however, the memory remains vivid. Here is the clipping.

In 2019, in an interview at the 8th Odisha Literary Festival, he recalled several fascinating anecdotes, from receiving threats to being locked in a room by mobs in Ayodhya while covering the demolition of the Babri Masjid. He also spoke about topics like government censorship, and secularism. Here is the full interview:

THE FINAL DISPATCH

“... Mark Tully, BBC, Delhi.”

That’s how he ended his dispatches from the national capital. For generations of listeners, that sign-off was a guarantee of professionalism, truth, and empathy. While he may be gone, those words, and that voice, will ring in our ears forever.

Rest in Peace, Tully Sahib.

(Useful reading: BBC in India - How the end of the Empire led to a new relationship with India)

Thank you!

This is a cross-post from LinkedIn.

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On April 30, I stepped into a new phase of life after my superannuation from The Hindu.

Interestingly, The Hindu was also the first newspaper I worked with — as an intern in Thiruvananthapuram, during July and August of 1987, while pursuing my post-graduation in Mass Communication and Journalism (MCJ) at the University of Kerala.

After completing my BSc in Chemistry, it was a tough call: should I go for a master’s in Chemistry, which would have been the obvious next step, or take a completely different route with MCJ?

After a lot of contemplation, I chose the latter.

That was back in 1985. What tipped the scale was my deep interest in current affairs (General Knowledge was a favourite subject in school) and my growing love for news.

Three years later, I got my first job — and since then, it has been an exciting journey of learning and discovery.

Journalism gave me the opportunity to understand so many aspects of the world around me — its social fabric, historical complexities, traditional routines, cultural nuances, political compulsions, business dynamics, personal stories, and technological transformations.

I couldn’t have asked for more.

In this new phase, I know I’ll miss the newsroom. But the compensation is a slower, more relaxed pace of life — one where I hope to do many of the things I had to put off all these years.

Though I may no longer be part of a media organisation, my passion for current affairs remains as strong as ever. I’m sure the many exciting developments around the world — especially in technology, which continues to fascinate me — will keep me engaged.

Journalism, after all, is not just about events. It's also about language — the vehicle that carries the message. So I know I’ll continue to be obsessed with adjectives and adverbs, clauses and conjunctions, punctuations and prepositions!

I’m deeply grateful to the six news organisations I worked for in six cities, and to everyone I’ve had the privilege of meeting and/or working with. I’ve learned so much from them all.

Looking forward to staying connected.

Thank you once again!

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A to Z Challenge - List of all the posts

Here is a list of all the 26 posts that I put up in April as part of the A to Z Challenge 2019.
This I hope will be helpful for those who might have missed my posts through the month and would like to check them out.
My theme was Journalism Jargons.

A for Attribution

B for Backstory

C for Confirmation

D for Deadline

E for Editing

F for Follow-up

G for Gutter

H for Human interest stories

I for Indent

J for Justify

K for Kerning

L for Lead

M for Masthead

N for News value

O for Orphan

P for Plug

Q for Quark Xpress

R for Record, on and off

S for Stet

T for Tombstoning

U for Upper case

V for Verso

W for Wires

X for X-height

Y for Yellow Journalism

Z for Zip

A to Z Challenge - Z for Zip

Theme - Journalism jargons

No, this is not exactly a journalism jargon. However, it's a term that we have been hearing in newsrooms ever since the advent of computers.

Indeed, it's a computer jargon, and like many typography jargons that are also journalism jargons, this too can be adopted as one.

Since this is a very modern term, I don't have to explain what it means. Yet, for the uninitiated, it is the process of using a computer programme (like WinZip) to stitch multiple files into one compressed file.

The zipped file occupies less space on the computer than all the individual files put together and such a compressed file is easier to send to another person via the internet.

The recipient will have to use the programme to unzip the compressed file into individual files.

Today journalists use computers and mobile phones for typing out stories and taking photographs and videos. When there are multiple files to be transmitted via the internet, they are zipped so that they can be sent easily.

(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2019".)

A to Z Challenge - Y for Yellow Journalism

Theme - Journalism jargons

This is a term that refers to newspapers that publish reports that are exaggerated and not fact-checked. The language used is colloquial, and the tone and tenor of the stories are such that readers can easily relate to.

The stories are sensational in nature, relating to subjects like crime, passion, personal relationships etc., and they are splashed on pages in big font sizes with colourful photos that easily catch the attention of readers.

Yellow Kid by Richard Felton
Outcault [Public domain]

The phrase is widely believed to have originated from the name of a popular comic strip, called Yellow Kid, first carried in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. The strip was among the many devices the paper used in its circulation war with William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal between 1895 and 1898.

The term yellow journalism refers to the sensational nature of journalism these two papers practised as they tried to gather more readers.

I don't think it would be wide off the mark to say that today's 'fake news' is the digital avatar of pre-computer era's 'yellow journalism'.

(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2019".)

A to Z Challenge - X for X-height

Theme - Journalism Jargons

This again is a typography term that is used in journalism.

It refers to the height of the small letter 'x' for a particular font for a particular point size.

Some letters have ascenders, like b, d, l, t etc.; and some have descenders, like g, j, p, y etc. The x-height does not include the space occupied by the ascenders and the descenders.

When you include the total height of a letter, including the ascender and the descender, it is called the point size.

Max Naylor [Public domain]

In typography, it's the x-height that is considered while deciding the readability and the amount of space taken by the text. The larger the x-height, better the readability but more the space occupied; and smaller the x-height, more text in the given space but less readable the text.

(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2019".)

A to Z Challenge - W for Wires

Theme - Journalism jargons

Wires or wire service or newswire is a synonym for news agencies. They are news organizations (like Reuters, Associated Press etc) that gather news, prepare news stories, have them edited, and distribute them to multiple newspapers, radio and television stations (like NYT, Fox News, BBC etc)

We say, "It's on the wires," to mean the news agencies have put out the story.  Wire stories have very matter-of-fact reporting, without much contextualising or interpretations, which are done by the newspapers and TV channels.

WHY WIRES ARE IMPORTANT

The wires are very important because it's practically impossible for all newspapers in the world to have their own reporters in all corners of the world. News agencies have a wide network of their own reporters or they have partnerships with local and regional news agencies.

So, if there is an important news break in any part of the world, the newsroom is alerted by a single-line cryptic message on the wires.

REFERENCES TO THE WIRES

In the world famous announcement on November 23, 1963, on CBS Television of the news of John F Kennedy's assassination, the renowned news anchor Walter Cronkite (one of my idols) makes references to news agencies like Press Service and United Press International and reads out details of the incident as they trickled into the newsroom. Cronkite also shows on camera a photograph (an unclear shot) of the incident "transmitted by a wire". 

In the Netflix series "The Crown" (on the life of Queen Elizabeth II), in the second episode, 'The Hyde Park Corner', Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes a reference to "the wires". That is when King George VI dies while his daughter Elizabeth and husband are in Kenya and Churchill asks the royal officials, "Has the Princess been notified?" One of the officials says, "My understand is not". Then Churchill says, "Then I suggest we do so before it breaks on the wires."

(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2019".)

A to Z Challenge - V for Verso

Theme - Journalism jargons

This is another typography term that is used in journalism. It refers to the left-hand side page of a newspaper, magazine, book, or a sheet of paper. The right-hand side page is called 'recto'.

Literally, the word 'verso' doesn't mean left-hand side. It means 'reverse' or 'the other side' and refers to the side of a paper that is read second, after flipping the right-hand side page.

In magazines, books and newspapers, the first page is the right-hand side page; when you turn it, you come to the second page, which is on the left. That is the origin of the words 'recto' (for right) and 'verso' (the reverse/opposite of right).

Incidentally, advertisements placed on the right-hand side pages of newspapers and magazines cost more than those on the left. That is because it's presumed people see the right-hand side page first and then the left-hand side page.

(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2019".)

A to Z Challenge - U for Upper case

Theme - Journalism jargons

Upper case is the typography lingo for a capital letter. Lower case is for a small letter.

While editing or proofreading, if a letter has to be changed to a capital letter, then a forward slash is marked on the letter, and u/c is written on the margin to indicate that the letter has to be changed to upper case. Similarly, a small letter is indicated by l/c.

I am not sure of the origin of the word. But my guess is that in the manual text-composing era, in the printing press, the metallic blocks of capital letters were arranged in the upper rows and the small letters in the lower rows.

(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2019".)

A to Z Challenge - T for Tombstoning

Theme - Journalism jargons

There are multiple meanings for 'tombstoning' depending on which context you are referring to.

In newspaper design, when two headlines, especially of the same width (like two double-column or two three-column items), are adjacent to each other, it's called tombstoning.

In olden days, there were very few varieties of fonts, and if two headings of the same font and size appeared side by side, it would have not only looked ugly, it would have also confused the reader, who might read one heading into the other.

Even after mechanical typesetting gave way to electronic typesetting, tombstoning was discouraged and I remember trying to redo placement of news stories on a page so that one multicolumn headline wasn't beside another.

The general practice is to separate two multicolumn items with a single column item.

A single-column item separates two three-column items.
(From today's edition of The Hindu)

In today's computer era, tombstoning is allowed, and occasionally we do see it. In such cases, care is taken to have different fonts for each of them, so that they look different.

A two-column item is beside a three-column item, but the fonts are different.
(From today's edition of The Times of India) 

(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2019".)

A to Z Challenge - S for Stet

Theme - Journalism jargons

When editors or proof-readers mark corrections but later change their mind and want to restore the original text, the term 'stet' is written.

It basically means 'please ignore the correction I made." In a way, it is the pre-computer equivalent of 'Cntrl Z'

I am not quite sure how the word originated, maybe some of you could throw light on it. My guess is it has some relation to 'status quo'.

In the pre-computer era, proof-reading and editing were done with pen or pencil on paper. And in those days, there were occasions when one had to use 'stet'.

But not now. With the invasion of computers into newsrooms, there is very little of proof-reading and editing that is done on paper; most of it is done online.

Nevertheless, sometimes editors would like to take a printout and do the editing on paper because some mistakes are more noticeable on paper rather than on the screen.

(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2019".)

A to Z Challenge - R for Record, on and off

Theme - Journalism jargons

When a person, who speaks to a reporter, is willing to be quoted by name, then it can be said, "the person is on record", otherwise "off record".

When a quote or attribution is "on record", it carries more credibility, than when it's "off record".

Whether a person is willing to come on record or not depends on who the person is and what is spoken. A person might not be willing to come on record if she is talking about something sensitive and if she fears that disclosure of name might boomerang on her.

Well-known and reputed reporters are generally unwilling to use anonymous quotes. They do so only when the subject is of importance and when they believe their sources are credible.

RECORDING CONVERSATIONS

Nowadays, it is very easy to record a face-to-face conversation or a phone conversation. It's wrong to record conversations without the speaker's permission. It's always better to check if the speaker is fine with the conversation being recorded. Because the person might want to speak off record.

In very rare cases, investigative journalists go undercover, and record (either video or audio) conversations. They do so only when the issue is of public importance.

(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2019".)

A to Z Challenge - Q for Quark Xpress

Theme - Journalism jargons

This is a popular Desktop Publishing software from Denver, Colorado-based Quark Software. The application is used by a number of newspaper companies in the world.

The first version of the software was released in 1987, with periodic upgrades subsequently. It competes with similar software like Adobe InDesign from San Jose, California-based Adobe, and NewsGate from the Aarhus, Denmark-based CCI.

COMPUTER ERA

In the pre-computer era, journalists worked with just pen, paper and typewriter. The page-making was done by phototypesetting operators, it was never the work of journalists.

After computers entered newsrooms, the entire word-processing operation changed. In the newsroom, journalists make the pages with help from the designers. Journalists now need to know about designing and designers need to know about journalism.

PAGE-MAKING

From 1999 to 2009, I worked on Quark Xpress to make pages of the newspaper I worked for. We had an MS-DOS-based platform on which stories were edited, and the edited stories were exported to Quark Xpress on which the pages were made.

More elaborate and complex design elements like charts, graphs, illustrations etc., were done on Adobe InDesign by the designers, which were then imported to the QuarkXpress pages.

DESIGN TEMPLATES

Since we need to make a newspaper page in not more than one hour, and since the shape of news stories are the same (only the content varies), the 'article shapes' are templated and stored in a library.  These templates have a number of dummy articles with different shapes and different headline point sizes.

So all that has to be done is to pull out the required article shape from the library and flow in the edited news story on to this article shape. We need to then only tweak the headline and the article to fit the space.

(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2019".)

A to Z Challenge - P for Plug

Theme - Journalism jargons

A news item is said to be a 'plug' when it has been sugarcoated (especially by a publicity agent) to make it look newsworthy and efforts are made to convince a journalist to run the story.

Such news items are generally one-sided with the aim of gaining publicity, and often with commercial benefits accruing from the publication of the news. They are usually advertisements in the garb of news items.

EXAMPLE OF A GYM

Imagine there is a new gym coming up, and its owners are interested in spreading the word. There is a general impression that when something appears as a news item it carries more credibility rather than when it appears as an advertisement.

So, the owners will be more interested in reaching out to local journalists and talking to them about the gym, with the hope of getting the gym covered in the media, as a news item.

But then there has to be something newsy about the gym. So, the owner's publicity agents will talk about the great equipment they have, how they help customers to stay healthy and fit etc.

However, in reality, that's what all good gyms anyway do, right?

Additionally, the gym is a commercial venture and not a charitable initiative; which means, any publicity would also have a commercial spinoff to it.

A news item on the gym can appear only if it's really one of a kind, and they are doing something pathbreaking. Otherwise, a news item on it would qualify as a plug.

FAKE NEWS

What is dangerous is journalists being provided disinformation under the garb that it is real and true. Miscreants can go to any devious lengths to spread such falsehoods in order to achieve some goals.

Good journalists are always aware of such traps, and they do a lot of fact-checking to ensure the veracity of the data and the newsworthiness of it.

(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2019".)

A to Z Challenge - O for Orphan

Theme - Journalism jargons

When the last line of a paragraph has just one word or the latter part of a hyphenated word, then that word is called an orphan.

From the aesthetic point of view, many journalists and designers tend to avoid it since one single word in an entire line looks odd. So usually a couple of words are added to preceding lines so that a few more words will come on to the last line.

The word 'son'
is an orphan

In the example on the right from today's Delhi edition of Hindustan Times, the word 'son' will qualify to be called an orphan. 

The word 'Himalayas', which is also one single word at the end of the paragraph, though theoretically can be called an orphan, doesn't look as bad as the word 'son'.

However, there are some people who look an orphan from another point of view. They say the increased white space in the last line left by an orphan gives relief from the grey text.

After all, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, right?

(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2019".) 

A to Z Challenge - N for News value

Theme - Journalism jargons

News value is what determines which news is important and which is not. Yes, it is subjective. What is important for you, might not be important for me; and vice versa.

However, there are a few general guidelines that are followed to determine news value. Here they are:

PROMINENCE - When prominent people say something that becomes news. That is why there is a greater probability of what President Trump of the US says making to the media around the world, compared to the statements made by other heads of state. Similarly, when something eventful has happened at a prominent building or place, that is news. For example, the fire at Notre Dame in Paris has surely made it to the front page of almost all major newspapers in the world.

PROXIMITY - A news development close to the place of publication becomes important. These are generally what gets termed as local or city-centric news items. Report of a major car crash in New York will be in New York papers, but it won't be there in any newspaper in other parts of the world.

NEWNESS - The latest development gets priority over stories that are older. Thus we have 'breaking news'.

IMPACT - The more widespread the impact of a news development, the more important it becomes. That is why government policy decisions, however boring it could be, are important.

UNIQUENESS - Something that is unusual, out of ordinary, that raises curiosity becomes news. Thus the famous adage: 'When a dog bites man it is not news, when a man bites dog it is news.'

(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2019".)

A to Z Challenge - M for Masthead

Theme - Journalism jargons

This is tricky because there are two meanings, depending on whether you are following the British model or the American model.

THE BRITISH USAGE

In India, we follow the British style; and the word 'masthead' refers to the entire panel right on top of the front page of a newspaper or the cover of a magazine, comprising the name of the publication, the date, the price, the place of publication, etc.

This is called 'nameplate' or 'flag' in the US.

This is called 'masthead' in India and other Commonwealth nations

This is called 'nameplate' in nations that follow the American style

The masthead/nameplate is the basic identity of the publication, it's not altered and it appears in the same way, every day.   

THE AMERICAN USAGE

In the American style, 'masthead' refers to a box of text that contains the name of the editor, publisher, printer, the address of the newspaper office, phone numbers, email ID etc.

This is referred to as the 'imprint' in Commonwealth countries.

Masthead/Imprint appears at a fixed place in every issue of the journal.

I wasn't able to access the masthead of The NYT since even with a paid subscription I have access only to the PDF of the front page of the paper. I am not sure on which page of The NYT the masthead appears. The image above is the Indian equivalent, called the 'imprint', of The Times of India's, Bengaluru edition.

A to Z Challenge - L for Lead

Theme - Journalism jargons

This is the opening paragraph of a news report, which summarises the most important points of the story.

It draws readers to the story and helps them quickly get an idea of what the report is all about. If the subject is of interest they can go ahead and read more of the article.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF LEADS

There are different ways a lead is constructed by the journalist. It all depends on what the story is about, and what the purpose of the story is.

If it's a breaking news item, then all the important points should be brought into the lead. That is usually referred to as the Direct Lead. Typically, the lead paragraph would have the answer to the 5Ws (what, where, when, why and who) and 1H (how) relevant to the story.

This is the lead of a Guardian story today

Jeremy Corbyn has been warned by Labour’s leader in the European parliament and other grandees that the party will be deserted by millions of anti-Brexit voters if it fails to clearly back a second referendum in its manifesto for next month’s EU elections.

There are so many points covered in that one single sentence.

Then there are cases, especially with human interest, soft stories where the writer employs other devices like interesting quotes or an anecdote or just a few isolated words to begin the story. The main aim is to the raise the curiosity of the reader to the get to the rest of the story. These leads are called Delayed Leads.

This is a very nicely written lead of a New York Times story (What It Takes to Pull Off India’s Gargantuan Election) on the ongoing parliamentary polls in the country.

Democracy doesn’t get much simpler than one person, one vote. But what happens when that one person is a hermit living alone in a jungle temple surrounded by lions, leopards and cobras, miles from the nearest town?
In India, the election comes to him.

(By the way, the story is about the diversity of the 900 million electorate, and the efforts the government and the fiercely independent Election Commission are taking to ensure that as many people can vote. The story is worth a read.)

IN FICTION TOO

An impressive opening paragraph is important not just in journalism but in works of fiction as well. Two of the best-known examples in literature are these:

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. 

That is the opening sentence of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. And ...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

That's the way Charles Dickens began A Tale of Two Cities.

However, the only difference is in journalism, who the killer is revealed right in the first paragraph, while in fiction it is revealed in the last.

IN WIRE STORIES

Back to journalism, the word lead has another meaning in the context of developing news as reported by the news agencies like the Reuters or the Associated Press.

In cases of developing stories like an accident or an ongoing issue with rapidly evolving developments, as and when more details trickle in, wire services rewrite the lead to incorporate more details. It's usually referred to as the 1st Lead, 2nd Lead, 3rd Lead, etc.

This is very helpful for radio and TV channel news bulletins, where they have to capture the full essence of a story in two or three sentences.

(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2019".)