To be a Journalist

Research journalism (My coining): This is better and apt for specialised candidates who don’t like a lot of travelling. It is mainly researching about topics on net and writing editorials. But it is a fairly difficult job and involves a detailed understanding of the subject, updated information in the area and needless to say, decent articulating skills. Newspaper offices are the libraries of all the latest reports issued by government and corporate, press releases and other stuffs. So it is very resourceful. Another option is working as a free lancer journalist.

A B C of Journalism
Skills needed to be a reporter: Good communication skills, proper idea of the beat including peripheral knowledge of the ongoing news in interlinking areas and decent writing ability.

Scanning the wires*: This basic aptitude enables a journalist to judge the news on their priority basis for the audience. Acquiring this skill would take roughly 10 days.
* Wires are news agencies that have extensive network of reporters spread all around. Generally newspapers do not have such large number of reporters, so they thrive on wires for news.

Reporting assignments: It is a fun activity. Each reporter has a beat(specialisation). A beat is acquired by following that stream over time, talking to experts like government officials, businessmen, concerned minister and academician. It is upto a reporter how deep he/she associates with the beat and this in turn establish his/her repo in that group. This way a reporter builds contacts. So, reporting assignments, in nutshell, is defined as following your beat.

Add on**: Any reporting is followed by lunch/dinner/high tea etc. This is a way to lure/ attract the reporters so that the news get proper coverage. In business section, at times, companies also give gifts to that beat reporter to maintain good relations and an ethicist reporter declines it.
**especially in business section

Networking: Reporters thrive on experts. They network with experts for news and updates. They certainly have an advantage over lay man because media can make anyone important. Starting conversation twice from scratch is difficult and annoying; following is a smarter way to grow.

Travelling: What irked me the most at Indian Express was travelling required for reporting. Delhi is a city of distances, and to go from one venue to another took on an average 1 hour. For reporters it is unavoidable, but for me it was a heck. So it is very much a subjective issue.