The challenge of producing a newspaper online

The challenge of producing a newspaper online
By Shaan Chhabra

For a first-year journalism student at Bennett University, publishing the college newspaper is a matter of great pride and joy. This is because The Times of Bennett (ToB) is the heart and soul of the college and gives the students a first-hand experience of publishing an actual newspaper. However, this time because of the pandemic, the journey of bringing out ToB online for the first time proved especially daunting and yet hugely rewarding for ToB helped students work as a team, make friends, become more confident and mentally strong.

When students just started writing for ToB as amateurs with no prior journalistic experience, each stage of the ToB production – whether it was reporting, writing, editing, or page-making – was a lesson in journalism.

Talking about initial hardships of bringing out the first two editions of the student newspaper, 18-year-old Ishita Singh said, “It was hard for the reporters to find stories close to our homes without putting ourselves at risk.” Also, students missed the fun of reporting from the field. “The actual thrill of reporting is going out into the field and discovering exciting new things to report,” shared Vidhi Goswami, first year journalism student.

Though the movement of the reporters was restricted yet the reporters were able to able to get a lot of interesting stories pointed out Vidhi, also worked as sub editor on the ToB pages. “We were given topics to help us do stories, but we also started doing our own stories, finding people to interview by speaking to the neighbours, or the RWA members, even people we met at street-side restaurants. We realised that stories were there everywhere, we just had to learn how to write stories like journalists,” said Sakshi Bagri, reporter for edition 6.

While restricted movement was one issue that reporters faced, the other was conducting interviews online as many people were reluctant to share information with reporters. “I honestly prefer doing face-to-face interviews as I get a much better perspective of the event. Meeting people you interview for stories also helps you build a rapport with your interviewees,” said Sakshi. But Sakshi was quick to add that while there were challenges, she remembered the points discussed in class on the art of interviewing and would first try to win the confidence of her sources before asking them to answer her questions. “I always make a point to thank them for answering my questions and sharing the story the moment it is published. These little gestures go a long way,” said Sakshi who now has a good relationship with her sources and are always willing to talk to her for a fresh story.

Another challenge of bringing out ToB online was meeting report submission deadlines. “It would become difficult to submit the stories on time because people cancelled interviews and many of the reporters fell ill,” said Sakshi.

Sub-editors also faced their share of challenges. As a sub-editor for edition 4 of ToB , Ria Pipalwa said, “It was particularly hard in the beginning as we had to learn how to use Affinity Publisher from scratch, which was a new software. This was challenging for me as I am not that tech savvy. I felt overwhelmed at one point and thought that I would not be able to meet the expectations of the professors. The shortage of reports made matters worse as there were empty spaces on my page that ultimately led to delays.”

There were initial hiccups in learning a new software but once the students became familiar with it, making and designing the pages became easy. Ria’s fellow sub-editor Saumya Gairola felt that the challenges related to Affinity Publisher were only faced in the beginning. “Only after a few attempts, I was able to make pages and became quite comfortable using the software. Also, working on Affinity allowed us to be more creative,” added Saumya.

Vidit Baya, sub- editor for edition 2, agreed that while the page making process seemed time consuming initially, it helped the students learn a new digital skill. “This will help us when we start working in media companies,” said Vidit.

Another issue that sub-editors faced was coordinating with reporters for pictures. Reporters would feel odd when sub-editors asked for pictures but then after a couple of editions both sub-editors and reporters realised that bringing out a newspaper was a team effort and they had to work together. “What some of us started doing was calling each reporter individually for the photos and this even helped us know each other better as most of us had only seen each other online and had never really met in person,” added Vidit.
ToB faculty


Giving the faculty’s perspective on the entire process, Professor Ramesh Kumar said, “An online edition of the newspaper posed the fundamental challenge of having to train students in various aspects of newspaper production that presuppose in-person interaction. The lockdown fatigue had slowed down the students for a bit. That said, the highlight of the experience is together we faculty and students crossed all the hurdles."

Professor Sumita Vaid said that any unusual situation would present challenges, but those challenges are also learning opportunities. “We were missing on giving one-on-one feedback to students in the absence of physical classrooms. So extra classes ensured that feedback was given to each student to help them improve both writing and editing skills,” said Professor Vaid.

Professor Saurabh Sharma pointed out that more than anything it was important to keep the students motivated because they did not get the chance to experience the real thrill of reporting because of the pandemic. “In the end, both students and faculty managed to successfully cross that bridge,” said Professor Sharma.

Of course, when the print editions 1 and 2 came out, both students and staff were thrilled to see their hard work pay off. “It proved to us that there was no mountain too steep to climb if you work hard,” said Pratham Maheshwari, edition 2 sub-editor. “I felt extremely proud when I saw the paper!” said Pratham.

Sharvi Sharma, also a sub-editor, said she felt especially proud of the page she was responsible for in the edition. “Working on the ToB gave me a sense of ownership. It was like I was in-charge of the page I was making,” said Sharvi.

Praising the dedication of the students Professor Shajan Kumar said, “Learning a new software and bringing out a broadsheet newspaper with 12 pages online is not an easy task, yet students brought out the ToB editions, their hard work deserves appreciation.”

Professor Aarish Chhabra said that even senior journalists would find it difficult to work on newspaper production amid this restrictive environment. “It is a quite a feat for students to have managed it all in spite of the pandemic,” he said.

For students passionate about journalism, there was no greater joy than seeing their reports and pages being praised by the professors and getting published in the newspaper.

Despite all the challenges, bringing out the ToB was a great learning experience. Students who had not met each other became friends, learned a lot about the value of sticking to deadlines, the rules of reporting and editing and what it means to be a good journalist. It has given students the confidence to tackle challenges.

In all, bringing out the ToB was an education.

[The report has been written by Shaan Chhabra, a student of BA (Journalism and Mass Communication) of Bennett University.]
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