By Sopan Joshi
Deputy Editor, Down to Earth
Delhi, India
Hosted by The Washington Post

At the end of six very enjoyable months, there are three aspects I'd like to mention.

One, the value of a sabbatical. Away from the day-to-day demands of journalism, it is refreshing to rethink what keeps one in the trade. To have the time to read, to observe, to hear from experienced and competent journalists allows one to see what the daily grind obscures.

I return with innumerable experiences that have enriched my life and range of references. Being in a foreign country made it more effective, because I found myself willing to drop the trappings of conditioning and familiarity, more open to new ways. I have made valuable acquaintances and friendships. I would recommend all friends and colleagues consider sabbaticals to regroup their professional lives.

Two, the practices of editorial management at The Washington Post. I relished the opportunity to see and experience what makes the Post such a great newspaper and an institution in journalism.

Within a week of my arrival at the Post, I saw the disappointment of staff getting buyout letters and the excitement of the paper winning six Pulitzers. I was told I was witnessing the craziest time in the history of the paper. Working on the City Desk with Metro gave a close glimpse of the editor-reporter interaction. Metro has about 100 reporters, and more than 20 editors. That means the reporters get a lot of attention from editors in discussing story ideas, reporting and writing the stories.

A major reason for this is the number of staff a newspaper can employ. During my visit to The New York Times, I was told the paper has 1,300 staff in the newsroom, and this is after the buyouts. The Post has more than 600 newsroom staff after the buyouts. Such numbers make it possible for each journalist to give a lot of attention to their work, and it allows for a lot of editorial stewardship, research, fact-checking, rewriting, generating good photos, and designing an attractive product.

With shrinking newsrooms, I wonder how these papers will maintain the standard of journalism to which they aspire.

Staff strength, though, is only half the story. The Post has an atmosphere of excellence. The paper has two senior Assistant Managing Editors (AMEs) in charge of staff training and development. The NYT also has similar positions to organize staff training regularly. The Post holds regular brown bag discussions on the craft of journalism. These meetings are attended by some very experienced writers, who, it might seem, need no writing coaching. But there is a ubiquitous willingness to learn new tricks, and there is little cynicism.

The publisher of the newspaper has been part of these brown bag discussions, and actually holds meetings to talk about the newspaper, its direction, its glory and its problems. The newspaper's circulation and readership is discussed openly, to give people an idea of the readers' expectations. The people who hold these meetings are from the top of the company's corporate leadership. There is a culture of openness and collaboration, and it is clear that it has been fostered over the years by the Graham family which controls the newspaper.

The editorial emphases are clearly communicated to each staff of this large newsroom. I found it striking how little discussion happens in the Post's editorial meetings. When I asked, I was told this is because everybody knows what is expected of them. The meetings are to take decisions and argue different sides of decisions. This saves a lot of time.

I also found that reputations do not mean everything at the Post. Several editors go back to reporting, and reporters take on editorial positions. All positions vacant in the newsroom are announced in well-written emails, and all staff is invited to apply if they have an interest. Staff news – personal and professional – is communicated routinely, with details of how the paper values their work. Each professional effort is complimented, and good efforts attract remarkable appreciation. If there are lots of stories competing for spots, the editors send out emails to reporters congratulating them how their excellent stories have editors fighting over every inch of available space.

All support that journalists need for their day-to-day work is readily available, be it editorial aides or research staff or administrative managers or subscription to electronic databases for research. The Post makes a lot of investment in staff and the infrastructure of journalism, and that is essential to the quality of the paper. Because it has such a good reputation in the media, the newspaper can hire the best in the business – and retain them.

I do not think the best practices of The Post can be shared readily – they have a lot to do with the way the Graham family has run the newspaper, and the kind of editorial freedom it affords its editors. There are some valuable lessons there, though mostly for the long run.

Three, the week of workshops at the Poynter Institute. It wasn't the content of the workshops that was new to me – the themes they addressed have been around forever. I have seen people struggle with those themes as much as I have struggled with them myself.

It was the way they tackled those themes. The Poynter instructors who worked with us laid bare the mechanics of story-telling, writing and editorial management in the form of attractive problems, and then explored the range of solutions at hand. The “tools, not rules” theme hit home. The instructors’ ability to unravel the components of our language and writing provides a range of, well, tools to tackle problems of communication.

My colleagues and I have struggled with those problems for a long time. When English is a second language, these problems amplify with added dimensions. The Poynter method of identifying problems in text and showing examples of possible solutions is very valuable. In particular, the treatment of verbs has been a problem for me. Poynter's material details a range of ways to make verbs vigorous. Their workshops show what makes such efforts work. It would help me hold better workshops.