Life at Hans-III

One of the first things I insisted on was a story list. Till I joined there was nothing of the sort at The Hans India. I couldn’t believe that a newspaper functioned without having a story list or ideas meetings. Well, miracles, like I said earlier.

I told all reporters that they had to give story ideas a day before. Of course, things can pop up at the last minute, everyone knows that. But planning in advance is mandatory. I told them to inform news coordinator Vasu every evening about their plans for the next day. Vasu was to make a story list and send it across to the higher ups and the whole team.

Now to tell you about Vasu, he is one of the finest human beings I have come across in my life. Always the perfect gentleman, he was always willing to lend a helping hand to his friends and colleagues.
On the work front, I would rate him No 1 among all the news coordinators I ever worked with. He has a huge number of contacts. Any story you wanted, any person you wanted to meet and interview, he’d arrange it for you. A hard-working and dedicated person, before leaving work every night, he meticulously made the story list and emailed it. No matter how late it was.

Now, here’s the problem. His story lists were vague. Ideally a story list should give you at least three pieces of information. What the story is, who is doing it and what time the desk can expect it. Only then can the desk plan, albeit with a sketchy idea. Vasu’s list just mentioned a place and the reporter! For example it would say ‘Nehru Zoological Garden’, Reporter: Varsha. Now, how am I supposed to figure out what the story is about? Can anyone enlighten me? At times he assigns reporters to find out what is happening at some place….like a cultural organization. But then he should put that on the list with something like ‘Details awatied’. Till the day I left, I never had the pleasure of seeing a complete story list from Vasu.
He doesn’t come from a newspaper background. So he doesn’t know the nuances of editing or page-making. He is a quick learner, but you can’t learn ‘18 years of experience’ in a few days or weeks or even months.

He was practically running the whole show. He was interacting with reporters and photographers and organizing good stories. Great! That’s his job, and he was the best, and I truly appreciated his efforts with all my heart.

Now, here’s the problem. He doesn’t stop at that. Maybe he doesn’t know the difference between being a news coordinator and an in-charge. Now it was not Vasu’s fault. The management should make it clear to everyone what his/her role is while joining. I assume they never did it. I was never introduced to the team. But when Mr Murthy introduced me to someone else he would say, “This is Sooraj, he is in-charge of Hyderabad Hans.” Wonder if he said that while introducing Vasu also!

I had no issues with Vasu handling the edition. The only problem—I had to butt in and make changes when the design looked drab, when headlines were dry, and when stories were dull. I tried putting it across in a subtle way—tried telling him to stick to what he does best, which is calling up people, arranging stories and pictures. I would take care of the rest—editing, designing etc.

I really don’t know if he understood my hints. If he did, he just chose to ignore it. And I never pushed further.