Rest of World’s Kaphle discusses its strategy

Mathew Ingram of Columbia Journalism Review spoke with Rest of World editor in chief Anup Kaphle about the strategy around its editorial focus.

Here is an excerpt:

MI: How have things changed since you joined Rest of World? Are there any insights you brought from your experience editing a newspaper in Kathmandu, or from the Washington Post?

AK: When I first joined, we were still very much in a building-and-learning mode. We had a concept for what the publication was going to focus on and a pipeline of stories that were planned for launch. Three years after joining and then launching Rest of World, in May 2020, we’re more clear-eyed about the themes we want to focus on and more confident about our ability to find the stories we want to pursue. As a startup, we will always be experimenting, but at this point, we have a collective understanding of our mission and values, how we want to operate as a publication and our ambition.

One of the most significant insights that I’ve carried from my previous journalism experiences is that who gets to tell the story really matters. Whether it is covering the war in Afghanistan or discrimination against women and ethnic minorities in Nepal, training and trusting the journalists from those communities adds tremendous value to your stories. But more importantly, it ensures our readers that by leaning on native journalists, we are accurately representing the diversity of cultures and views held by the people we’re writing about, in a way that is always dignified and factual.

Read more here.