BY: DEEKSHA BHARDWAJ
An imposing building, long driveway and a perfect corporate working atmosphere greeted us as we steered into The Indian Express office in Panchkula. With thousands of queries in our minds we had gone to this office to satiate our hunger and know about the working of a newspaper. To help understand things better we had Puneeta ma'am with us and as we alighted from our vehicle a suave Mr. Mufti Ali warmly welcomed us to the office and later escorted us to the editorial hall where news from the whole world were pouring on the computer screens.
Significantly, we had gone to the office at a time which is considered to be 'peak hours' in terms of work and hence the editorial was alive with all the hands moving frantically on the keyboards. The monitors had been frequently changing texts and printers continuously releasing pages. Peeping occasionally on one or the other computer, we were finally guided to the room of the Resident Editor of the Indian Express Mr.Vipin Pubby, who then showed tremendous patience to respond to our volley of questions.
We were excited beyond belief to know how a newspaper is run. A curious Urvashi pounced at the chance and voiced her query,
"How do you basically design a newspaper?"
"Designing involves experts; we appoint trained design personnel's for the same" Mr. Pubby replied.
"But the breaking news, how is it incorporated in the news edition?" Abhivyakti put in.
"Usually we have reporters working till late hours at night. So, if the news reaches us till 12, by when generally it does reach us, it is included for the current edition. But if somehow it is delayed, it of course is covered the next day"
"How do you decide what is the best matter to publish?" I inquired.
"Well, it's basically on how important the news is. Sure we put in articles that attract the attention of the masses, but that's not all is it, we also have other things to cover in a news daily.So we consider it from a reader's point of view then further decide what's best."
"But now-a-day's people are more interested in paparazzi than the usual knowledge giving articles. Even though it is that way Indian Express has a way of putting in more knowledge giving articles" Archita asked.
"Well, that's one reason that Indian Express is not as popular as maybe the Times of India. But we have a reputation to live up to and that's the standard which we are trying to maintain. And as far as the paparazzi is concerned it more of the youngsters who are so keen to read it. Indian Express aims for others as well. We do provide what we consider a sufficient amount of it." Mr.Pubby replied.
Pia who is interested to pursue journalism as a career eagerly put in "What traits do you look for in journalist?"
"Of course one should be a graduate, that is properly educated, alert to one's surroundings, quick to grasp things, interested in the affairs of the world, a good writer and perhaps a good typist." He smilingly added "You may willingly do a course in Mass Communications also but it won't guarantee you a job over the others because most importantly we look for a vigilant citizen who is keen to investigate"
Still not satisfied with our success we took Mr.Pubby's leave and moved on to the other reporters. Here we came to know that this office was basically to handle the local and regional stuff whereas they depended on their Delhi head office for national and international stories. "Since national and international stories are the same so there was hardly any time to waste preparing them here when the pages are transmitted online immediately after being prepared in Delhi or as a matter of fact in any part of the world." Khushboo one of the reporter's we conversed with clarified.
Anyhow, after a strong verbal and theoretical dope regarding sharing of news content and preparation of the paper, it was time to move on to some practical knowledge. We walked up to Bharti who gave us a bird's eye view regarding news gathering and designing. Later Sumit clarified our doubts regarding the photography section.
Then it was again Mr. Ali who took us to the printing press in the basement of the building. Oh! It was a huge facility and a gigantic machine. By the time we reached there the newspaper was about to publish. We hardly had to wait a few minutes before the machine started roaring and within seconds, thousands of copies of well-folded newspaper piled up and were removed manually to the dispatch section, where they were being packed by dozens of the men. As we took to our vehicle, the newspaper vehicle loaded with packets of papers also left the premises. We were a little confused and felt it was so early for the paper to leave the office as it was supposed to reach our houses in the morning.
Parul another one of the reporters cleared our doubts and said that the paper was supplied to the whole region from here and the early edition would be going to far off plaes that took hours of long drive to reach by the morning. The paper which we get at our house is the updated late city edition packed with all the local stories and was published after midnight. Completely satisfied with our progress we set off for a long traipse to our car. Here we came back home with enough knowledge about the way a newspaper shapes up at its office.
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