Decoding the Editor’s Pick Feature at EssentiallySports – and Why Our Authors Take Pride in It

What would you give for an article that you wrote to feature on the homepage of a website which has millions of readers visiting it? What would you feel like if your article was nominated because it has got the seal of approval, and believes it deserves more attention? What if an organization decided to celebrate its authors by displaying the caliber and quality of their content through its website? Answering these questions without further ado, is the story of how we at EssentiallySports took a leap to commemorate the excellence of our authors – with a feature called the “Editor’s Pick”.

With the advent of this initiative, the Editorial team instantly envisioned that there would be nothing but a positive ripple effect amongst the authors. It also showcased the fact that we at EssentiallySports continue to place utmost trust in our authors, to uphold the content creation standards of the organization. The hunger to be featured helps fuel an adrenaline rush ably felt by journalists all the time, as well as embracing healthy peer competition to make their way atop that space. 

Tracing back to its origin though, our Tech-Product team continually brainstorms ways to enhance finesse of the website’s UI/UX elements, which we come to associate in its present version. It was, indeed, through the hard work of our co-founder Suryansh Tibarewal and his team that a major revamp happened in 2023, as they built a brand new look for the website in record time – this saw the birth of the Editor’s Pick feature. 

The Combined Power of Editorial and Tech

Whilst having an insightful discussion with Rahul Repala, a member of the Tech team at EssentiallySports, he explained how the idea of the Editor’s Pick was pitched by Suryansh and how they went about visualizing it. Talking about how the Editor’s Pick feature can help build strong website health, he said, 

“A homepage needs certain features so that people will start looking at our website by opening essentiallysports.com. We brainstormed on a few ideas and eventually zeroed in on the Editor’s Pick. The idea was also to showcase the strength of the writing team, as they read through the articles in the Editor’s Pick section. Plus with readers frequently visiting our website, they do look at the homepage first – and so putting our best content as a section there, is of paramount importance.”

While the Tech-Product team helped bring the idea to fruition, it was the Editorial team that latched onto the opportunity. They decided that this was the space to celebrate their authors and built a brand image around this new feature. During a conversation with the organization’s Editor-In-Chief, Sourabh Singh, he revealed how the team always knows an article’s performance, in terms of its objective metrics. However, bringing in the glorious subjectivity of an editor’s journalistic lens to the forefront through the Editor’s Pick, is where magic happens. While expressing his thoughts on the significance of the Editor’s Pick, he emphatically said,

“Consider the storefront which displays the best work of the store at its fore. Similarly, the Editor’s Pick is a daily showcase of some of the best works of our journalists by glorifying the topic, the kind of coverage, and the person in the byline, that in turn demonstrates our brand image. As well as how we want the audience to perceive our website.”

Even our Editorial Advisor, Mr. Rajesh Viswanathan, concurred with the idea of propelling a journalist’s confidence through this special feature. Having previously worked with the likes of Microsoft and ZEE Group in the past, his illustrious career has been marked with similar milestones along the way. Speaking more about it, Mr. Rajesh said,

“I vividly remember the first time I got picked for ‘Editor’s Pick’ and that was back in 1996 when I had the opportunity to write for a newspaper as a reader. There was this ‘letters’ competition and the best one would be placed under the ‘Editor’s Pick’. It was such a special feeling when I made it.

Even today, Editor’s Pick remains one of the biggest moments of gratification for every journalist. That your story is seen by the editor as an important one is a testimony to your growing stature as a writer. Such moments can give journalists a massive leap of faith,” he concluded.

Editor’s Pick Helps In Building a Path to Excellence

While the proposal and setting up of the Editor’s Pick is just half work done, the other half lies in the implementation. Our editors continue to spring on the opportunity to celebrate innovatively written content and decorate their authors with the honor of awarding them the Editor’s Pick. In quick chats with Shibu Immanuel, the Learning & Development department lead, and Snigdhaa Jaiswal, head editor of the Boxing division, they expressed how they view it and its role in keeping authors charged up and motivated. 

“Editors’ Pick is certainly given to that one special article we get to edit. For me, an article has to ‘check all the boxes’, and only then it deserves to be tagged Editors’ Pick! It has to be well written, has the essence of ‘flowing passion’, and consists of an expert take. Most of all, as an editor, I must forget that I’m editing the piece and be lost in the narrative,” said Shibu Immanuel while adding that the Editor’s Pick also showcases the inbred talent. 

Out of the hundreds of articles published every day, only 5 articles get to feature in the website’s reputable ‘hall of fame’. Therefore, every division celebrates their chosen moments with gusto and also studies the takeaways from those articles. Expanding on this thought, Snigdhaa said, “There’s always something for the team to learn from a piece that gets tagged as Editor’s Pick. We share such articles across our author groups and discuss them. We also take it as an opportunity to dissect it as a team, and then take it to our authors.” 

Shibu also touched upon how he perceives the Editor’s Pick as a potential tool to motivate content creators to push toward excellence. Expanding on the small wins is key and such constant positive reinforcement can only go a long way in an author’s career development. “(They) definitely take pride when given a shout-out in a public forum. They feel that their work is recognized and appreciated. Every minor achievement requires appreciation and celebration. Once the writing quality improves to such a top notch level that it makes it to Editors’ Pick, there’s no going back from that high!”– said the L&D lead. 

Hearing From Our Journalists

Even our journalists are not far behind when it comes to this celebration of quality content creation. Pranay Bhagi, Senior Author and Content Analyst at F1, described his experience on how he felt when he got his first Editor’s Pick, “There was this article I wrote about Honda’s history in F1. I remember going above and beyond in terms of research, as it was something I loved writing about. Even the title suggested was my own. And when it was selected as an Editor’s Pick, I got the feeling that the extra efforts were worth it. It was a proud moment seeing my article in the Editor’s Pick section!” 

Chiming in with similar thoughts, Dhruv George, our most seasoned journalist who has written over 14,000 articles for EssentiallySports, shared his thoughts on how he perceives the feature, “I feel that an Editor’s Pick is a status symbol for any author. It serves as a form of validation for them, and gives us supreme confidence in our abilities to keep that level going.” 

While sharing his closing thoughts on how the Editor’s Pick empowers excellence, Pranay also said it was a great initiative taken by the organization while adding, “It highlights the effort as a whole. It’s not just about the writing skills or the research, but the effort put into choosing the topic and title as well. Hence, it motivates everyone, from the content strategists to the editors and of course, the authors. One takes immense happiness in their skills and effort being recognized, with the article and name right up there.” 

To put things in perspective, the Editor’s Pick will always be seen as the podium where the best articles are adorned for the world to consume. While our ‘ES’ tribe strives to produce industry-leading content with each article, the Editor’s Pick will always reflect the brand of journalism that EssentiallySports has to offer. With market demands continuing to evolve, so will the various teams at EssentiallySports – as we seek to adapt to the ever changing times, and deliver the gold standard of journalistic content to our readers.