Silently winning, losing and winning battles

At our first anniversary, someone remarked that there was scepticism about The Express Tribune completing a year. The person then drew a comparison with Zardari’s government that also managed to sustain during the time. I did not understand that remark then – to this day I wonder what he actually meant. Was he complimenting our work? The mention of the former president made me feel otherwise.

I joined the newspaper when it had not launched, in October 2009, and after months of training, the paper saw the light of day in April 2010. The industry felt journalism was a field for the experienced and shots needed to be called by the old and wise. ET certainly changed that perception.

My write-up is going to be public and people would feel I am scoring points. But, the fact is, and every former employee would agree, that this newspaper gives more freedom to staffers in terms of editorial control. Sure, there are times when we needed to take the back foot and there have been occasions when we could have been more vocal. But, these are battles and you cannot win all of them. You can only live to see another one – and hopefully, prevail in the next.

My editor, subeditors, most of all Ghazanfar sahib, have been a source of constant support. There may have been many disgruntled at Tribune’s attitude, salary delay issues, and timings among other issues. But, there is a good reason why I have stayed back.

Being the business editor sounds fancy and it is to an extent. But, there has not been a day when I did not feel I was fighting some evil force. From PR companies, officials – who do not wish to be named yet want themselves quoted – everyone is a piece of work. I have received phone calls in which the caller has gone from ‘sir..sir’ to ‘****’ in less than a minute after I refused to take down a story that put the entity in bad light. The argument was not about the truth in that story – it was about why we needed to do it.

The industry will continue to fight over ratings, advertisements, social media hits since ‘numbers’ make it easier to gauge progress. But, it does not prove quality does it?

Hence, we will continue to do our work silently and ensure quality – and hope that amid the madness of increasing social outreach, people notice the good stories we do.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2015.