As a journalist, who began his career in July 1987, I was always taught that the usage of “I” must be avoided. Storytelling, news writing, features and interviews are not about the scribe, but the athlete, coach or sports official.
I guess it’s time to break that rule, after so many years. It is my privilege to write about the Founders’ Day of RevSportz. Before anyone jumps at me for the use of “I”, it is because I’d like to capture something personal.
The narrative has always been about sports stars, hits or flops. This time, it is about a baby I also get to hold, RevSportz. Coming from a hardcore newspaper background, going back almost four decades, the growth of digital media has been phenomenal.
I come from an era when there was no Google and assimilating news was a hard job. You had to be dead sure of facts or face the music from bosses. A digital platform gives you the chance to make a change or correction in real-time, very fast.
This is where I feel RevSportz stands out, for its values, for the stuff it produces and the way it engages with the audience. People talk of brands and so on. No, I think a brand is also a commodity, really, driven by marketing teams.
Out here in RevSportz, the way the editorial content is put out, thoughtfully and with painstaking efforts from each person concerned, is top class. It’s like a Virat Kohli 100 or a Lionel Messi goal.
At a time when there are any number of digital platforms which cover sports in India, RevSportz is high-rev, high-octane. There is a fantastic mix of every sport relating to India, plus, of course, even European football. It’s nice to celebrate the superstars in global sports like tennis, football, Formula One and many more disciplines.
To go full throttle in the coverage of Indian sports, RevSportz stands head and shoulders above the rest. Three examples will suffice to prove my point. If you watched the coverage of the Asian Games and the Para Asian Games on RevSportz, it was top-class. Reportage from the venues, newsbreaks, interviews, features, columns, videos – you name it, RevSportz had it. And it still does, including India’s performances in football.
Now comes the saturation coverage of cricket. The ICC World Cup was a classic example of how RevSportz covered it. This was like AB de Villiers’ 360-degree batting, every angle covered. Reports from the ground, the studio shows from Kolkata that rocked, coverage of India matches, including the semi-finals and final – RevSportz left nothing out there.
An athlete can peak, win a medal, and then take a break. But in the world of cut-throat journalism, there are no off days really. You have to go on and on, almost 365 days a year. That is what RevSportz stands for, delivering quality content, non-stop.
I have worked on digital platforms before as well. Let me tell you, however much you talk of SEO (search engine optimization), Google trends and what’s being thrown out on social media, you have to be different. RevSportz is different, it sets the agenda. It’s like filter coffee, with a strong aroma and rich in taste.
As a serious coffee drinker over the last 45 years, my current brand is RevSportz. I am just two months old in this organization in terms of writing, but I feel like part of the RevSportz family, which has amazing colleagues at work, young and old!
As RevSportz completes two years, it’s like a birthday wish for each one of us. We will have our cake and eat it too!