Make your own free website on Tripod.com

V. Venkatesan

Personal
Date of birth: 18 May 1964                      Marital status: Married

Address for communication
Residence                                             Office
C-305 Golf View Apartments                     Deputy Editor, Outlook Money
Saket, New Delhi 110 017                        AB 6 Safdarjang Enclave, New Delhi 110 029

Contact numbers                                         e-mail: venky_2000@yahoo.com
Res: 26966566 Cell: 98997 60099                Website: http://go.to/venky

Educational Qualification

  • First class in B.Sc. (Mathematics) from University of Madras; July 1981 to May 1984.
  • Post-Graduate Diploma in Journalism for Developing Countries, from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, which offers comprehensive training programmes in journalism and advertising/public relations, for which professionals from other developing countries too enrol; August 1984 to April 1985.
    * Won The Hindu award for topping in Print Media Specialisation

Professional Experience

Outlook Money
Deputy Editor, from April 2002 till date
Associate Editor, from June 2000 to March 2002

Responsibilities

As one of the members of the editorial board, to conceptualise, commission, coordinate and put together the entire range of high-quality content - from cover to cover - in the fortnightly personal finance magazine, with particular emphasis on making it eminently readable, even peppy, without compromising on seriousness of content.

More specifically:

  • Participating in daily meetings of the senior editors, updating the menu and orientation of stories in the light of the latest developments, and discussing editorial and visual treatment (including photographs and graphics).
  • Commissioning articles/columns, briefing correspondents/members of the editorial desk on the orientation of the articles, making mid-course corrections in the stories in tune with changing newsflows, enforcing stringent quality control norms at every stage of the process (both in respect of content and style of presentation)
  • Coordinating copyflow to and from the editorial desk, ensuring strict adherence to deadlines, providing timely interventions at critical stages of this process to add value to the treatment of the stories.
  • When required, author/anchor articles that require nuanced treatment.
  • Overseeing the production process in its entirety, right down to the signing off of pages.
  • In addition to all these responsibilities as a senior member of the editorial team, secure feedback - when required - on stand sales figures and circulation figures and draw inferences on what kind of stories sell and what doesn't.
  • Involved in work and performance appraisals of the team of correspondents and desk resources.

In addition to all these responsibilities, I write for other group publications - particularly Outlook Traveller, Outlook and Outlook Traveller's series of travel guides - whenever I am required to. This frequently involves travel.

Published articles
For a representative sample of my articles, published in various newspapers and periodicals over the years, please visit my website: http://go.to/venky

Frontline
Assistant Editor, from September 1997 to June 2000
Chief Sub-Editor, from June 1994 to August 1997
Sub-Editor, from January 1992 to May 1994

Responsibilities

1. Co-ordinating Cover Story features -- from beyond the stage of conceptualising themes of topical and special interest through the editorial stage, right up until the production stage. This involves:

  • Participating in meetings with the Editor and the Deputy Editor in order to formulate the magazine's editorial line on the Cover Story theme and the various components that the in-depth feature will comprise, and to finalise the list of correspondents/commissioned writers;
  • Extensively editing and, on occasion, thoroughly rewriting these inputs for content and for stylistic reasons;
  • Obtaining a composite collection of pictures from a variety of sources - online picture services, Staff Photographers, Photo Archives and, in some cases, other external sources; short-listing and finalising the pictures in consultation with the Deputy Editor; and
  • Co-ordinating with the artist-technicians in the production of the pages.

2. Assessing reports filed by Correspondents / contributors / commissioned writers for content and style, and providing suggestions to add value to the stories.

3. Writing for popular features, featuring crisp, commentative takes following up on earlier reportage. Representative sample of subjects: international affairs, politics, beauty pageants, sports.

4. In addition, involved in most aspects of editorial and production activity, including:

  • Editing and rewriting stories and also dovetailing them with the extensive pictorial coverage;
  • Providing written inputs;
  • Editorial-level organisation and co-ordination of online picture services;
  • Co-ordinating with the artist-technicians in the preparation of graphics, occasionally with conceptual support as well; and
  • Co-ordinating the production of the pages using state-of-the-art computer technology.

Indian Express
Senior Sub-Editor, from August 1991 to December 1991
Sub-Editor, from May 1985 to August 1991

Responsibilities

Editing and rewriting stories, handling shifts, controlling copy flow and, since May 1989, bringing out editions, preparing layouts, and page make-up. Authored a periodical column providing backgrounders to international events.