From civil engineering to software development and media venture
Story of a young founder, whose site ReportLook.com curates English news items and publishes it with Hindi translation to better reach common man
Kolkata: He had studied civil engineering, but as he was interested in computer science, he learnt software development. Now he not only does development work, he also founded a Hindi news website and that runs stories which are often ignored by Indian mainstream media.
Meet 29-year-old Jamil Khan, from Rajasthan, who along with pursuing his dream of becoming a developer also caters common masses the hate-less news that most media organizations serve these days.
“I had done civil engineering (SLBS Engineering College, Jodhpur) because my parents had wanted it. But, I was always interested in doing computer science. After finishing the study, when I got a job in a construction company, not only was it less paid, I realized I cannot pursue my career out of it. Now, my family had also agreed and given me time to follow my interest,” Jamil Khan told eNewsroom.
The young engineer turned newsman further said, “But, the challenge for me was neither I had money nor time to go back and attend any software development course. So I learned with the help of friends, books and online classes to become a developer. When I learned a bit, I started helping people on a pro-bono basis and when I got confidence, I launched my site ReportLook.com in 2017.”
ReportLook’s Hindi stories get translated from Indian and international media organizations’ English sites, and often go viral.
“We select those stories, which if run by major sites they twist it, means the story remains hate-filled or they ignore it because it did not fulfill their agenda,” Reportlook founder elaborated.
He mentioned, “Journalism is a vast field and I am still learning about it, but now at least I can differentiate which story is a good report and which one lacks a basic journalistic approach, one that basis we decide our news items.”
But, Khan is neither Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair whose website AltNews has caught the imagination nationally and internationally or The Wire founded by Siddarth Vardarajan, which has become a pioneer in meaningful journalism in India and gets public support on a single call. So how does his site sustain itself in the market?
“Google is the answer,” he replied and added, “I earn from Google ads. As I know Search Engine Optimization (SEO) works, with this help, not only it fetches me viewers but also some money.”
However, the young founder is also planning to seek public support in future to strengthen more arms to his four year old venture.
