The most difficult tweet that Goa News Hub released in our journey of five years was on March 17, 2019, the GNH was just one-year-old then.
It was an evening when everyone was worried about the deteriorating health of then CM Manohar Parrikar, who was bedridden due to cancer. All of a sudden, one of my close friend, who was at the bedside of ailing Parrikar called me to inform that the chief minister was no more.
We did not break the story, immediately, even though the entire world was waiting to get health update about Parrikar. It was the moment when we consciously decided that breaking a story was of a very less importance than the loss that we were going to suffer after his death.
Our entire team waited for some time as we could not digest the news. Few moments later, President of India twitter handle was the first one to break the news. Later, we released the tweet. Parrikar was no more.
Since its inception till date, Goa News Hub has been breaking new grounds, at times attracting bitter criticism and later setting trends in Goa’s Journalism.
The GNH had a humble beginning. We started with a twitter account which was our sole platform where we broke the news. We were cub amongst the giants.
That was a time when news channels hardly treated twitter as a medium to break the news. When we did that, initially, we were mocked at. Later, we began carrying advertisements on twitter. That was the only revenue source we had. That time, we were mocked at.
As I write this article today, we have all the media houses prominently using twitter to break stories and also carry advertisements.
As we were not the cable television media house, we had to shoot and carry our interviews on the Facebook page. That time everyone mocked at us. Interview on Facebook? Who watches interviews on Facebook? Facebook is for personal posts. These were the most common comments passed about GNH.
But we still continued what we were good in – consistency.
Down the line, five years later, the GNH has emerged as a leading digital media in the state. The figures show that we are number one in the digital media segment and inching closer to prominent news channels. The growth is encouraging.
If you all allow me to narrate the anecdote about GNH’s journey, I still remember a day when I shot Passay with late Mahadev Joshi, aka MJ Rocket. The episode got nearly 3 lakh views in a day. That was perhaps the time when Mahadev helped us to skyrocket our viewership base.
It gave birth to series called Passay. This series has covered right from the newly discovered places, waterfalls to highlighting the cultural aspects of the state.
Hub Encounter has been a popular interview show. Hub Express is a travel show that covered election like never before. The Hub Express continues in a new form. Unsung Hero discovered the talents worth being saluted. Get Up Start Up brought to fore the Start Up industry. Hub Life introduced you to the people who have excelled in their life.
GNH has a sleek team of reporters but we get the real videos through our followers and well-wishers, who are our real strength.
Remember a day when Tauktae cyclone devastated the state. The situation was worst as life had come to a standstill. But GNH continued breaking the stories on that particular day, thanks to our well wishers including fishermen who were at the coast, our friends from Sattari who were sitting in the inundated village and sending us pictures and videos and some of those who were stuck on the road due to trees fallen on the roads. Our reporters were our readers.
As we continue our journey in the sixth year, we assure you to give our best. We will provide the best coverage of the events and also bring to you, Goa which is beyond Hashtag.
