New at the crease

Last month’s semi-final between India and Pakistan showed just how much sport, especially cricket, means to the nation. As soon as the duel was confirmed, masses on either sides of the border — and people around the world who love the sport — talked about nothing but this semi-final.

Realising Pakistan’s love for sports and given how The Express Tribune was also targeting a younger audience, bringing out the sports pages and presenting news in a different, yet relevant, manner became a great challenge. Our aim was not to compromise on quality but, instead, to cut down the quantity: Give the readers the important news, things that they really want to know, hear and read about instead of imposing the newspaper’s drive, angle and preference on them.

The Express Tribune also wanted an ideal blend of local and foreign news. There is an increased interest in European football, Formula One and international tennis. We wanted to bring all this to the readers’ doorsteps but all the while ensuring that our local heroes, the ones deserving recognition and headlines, no matter how far-flung their villages are, were placed next to the likes of Roger Federer, Sachin Tendulkar and Cristiano Ronaldo.

The newspaper’s aim of creating the journalists of tomorrow meant that the sports desk was made up of individuals who had never worked for a newspaper before nor had any past interaction with the sports stars. However, they had the knowledge of sports, the willingness to change their fan-like mindset to that of a sports journalist and the excitement of knowing that they could watch cricket all day without having their boss shout at them.

We also had the liberty of a unique layout, one that allowed us to complement our stories with high-resolution colour photographs, giving us an edge over our competitors. This helped attract readers and bring out the whole ‘picture’.

Dedicated staff, a unique layout and well laid-out plans are all nice when the readers know who you are. The biggest problem our reporters and sub-editors faced was identifying themselves to find potential stories. The Express Tribune was, and still is, new to the market. As our readership increases and as the business cards make the rounds, the name became common, easing the interviewees’ concerns regarding the publication’s legitimacy.

As The Express Tribune completes 12 glorious months in circulation, we can proudly list several cricket, hockey, boxing, football and tennis stories that we were the first to report, former cricketers that we hired as columnists and comments and features that we carried to make Pakistan sports a better read for the nation.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th,  2011.