Unboxed Writers began reaching out to readers in March 2011 and in April we are nearly 140 stories and many thousands of clicks old. Yes, we are being read and shared but there are days, to be honest, when we wonder. No, not about we why are writing. We do not question the joy of reaching out every single day to every single person who clicks on our site to read something new. But we wonder about our place in a space where we are up against sites flush with if not creativity than financial muscle.
We know, we cannot take ad revenue for granted like branded sites do. We do not have a business manager. Or board-rooms to chalk out our annual financial plan. To be honest, we don’t have any. What we do have is a vision and a hunger. And goodwill. We know that if we consistently, persistently, stubbornly put our best out there, new readers will find us, old readers will stay connected and our dream will then start supporting itself with more than just passion.
There are good days and some very good days at the moment when stories go viral on twitter and Facebook and are ‘liked’ many times over. Days when readers tell us they would have liked to see a story on the front page of a newspaper. And tell us they are happy to have discovered us. Days when we squeal in excitement to see a sudden surge in site clicks after a new story is posted. And also days when traffic ticks on but without breathless excitement. And that is why it is so important that those of you who like reading us, share us with others. Every click matters to us. Every word of endorsement is priceless. Because that is what we are working for at this moment. And will continue to work for even when the site starts generating revenue.
We are at the moment, in the zone of frenzied, single-minded commitment to the reader. None of us are being paid to ensure that there is atleast one new story every day of the week on the site. We do not have agency feeds that let us put out film gossip as inserts. We do not have an external network of writers. Our core group, guest writers and occasional writers are solely responsible for the content being generated. We also make sure that we do not cut corners. We do not write just anything even though we know there are many ways to increase site traffic and attract instant revenue. We don’t use sensational headlines, images of questionable nature or allow unmonitored, rabid comments on our discussion boards to get attention. We don’t because we don’t want just attention. We are aiming at retention. We want to be memorable and meaningful.
We are not the voice of mainstream media that sells everything. We are not the journalism of arrogance either, dismissive of every book, hero, film, ideal. We are not here to form your opinions for you. Or to inform you whether Sachin Tendulkar deserves Bharat Ratna. Or if Abhishek Bachchan is Zero No 1 (refer to a leading news magazine on the stands. Really? They can say stuff like this and make it sound like serious reportage?). Or if Anna Hazare is an obsolete hero helming a comical revolution endorsed by a hypocritical middle-class. We don’t think we need to ‘educate’ our readers. We are not presumptuous enough to believe that we and no one else deserves to be on the pedestal of opinion making.
We will however share what is important and sometimes what is not so important. In the last two months, we have written on the mechanics of the Anna Hazare movement, on films, on books, on architecture, design, environment, travel, food, issues ranging from child-abuse to women’s rights to social disconnection in the time of social networking. We have written short-stories. Poems. Humour pieces. Free falling pieces that just are. Like a moody piece on what it takes to cross the Indo-Nepalese border via a dusty office in a forgotten town. Why the earth should have rights too in an age of heedless appropriation. Why lonely women feel like social-outcastes and fall through the cracks. Why Delhi is a unique entity throbbing with colliding energies.
And we are still writing. Why? Because you matter. Because we think, we are catering to you, the reader who has been ignored by the media. A reader who wants stories told without presumption, righteous posturing and with simplicity and honesty. And so we go on. Yes, we wonder at times about the sanity of going on without financial fuel. But then we came this far without an office, without advertising, without a single investor if you discount our writers and their core strengths. We came this far. We will go further.
Reema Moudgil is the author of Perfect Eight. (http://www.flipkart.com/perfect-eight-reema-moudgil-book-9380032870) . More on Story Wallahs. Other books by Unboxed Writers in our Store.