Bastion’s Editorial Fellowship

The Bastion presents an eight-month editing fellowship for women between the months of February and September 2022. Fellows will work with our range of writers from across the development sector to convert their knowledge into accessible and compelling digital journalism. Alongside Chirag Chinnappa, our Chief Editor, you will be trained to plan month-on-month editorial output and edit six stories per month on development in India, in depth. By and large, the work involves:

• • Commissioning stories by identifying potential topics in the news cycle to commission long-form stories relevant to the five sectors of development we cover: Education, Environment, Healthcare, Technology, and Sports.
  • Producing stories end to end by working with writers right from the initial pitch, to editing their stories, and publishing them.
  • Learn the ropes of development journalism for a digital audience, work with a diverse network of professionals involved in solving India’s developmental challenges and have fortnightly calls with curated experts from the field.

This is a full-time position, with a monthly stipend of ₹20,000.

What’s In It For You

At The Bastion, no two stories (or days) are the same. Over the last four years, we’ve produced nearly 1000 deep-dive articles exploring India’s development journey.

If you’ve ever wanted to change the way development and public policy has been reported about in India, or been interested in learning what it takes to news stories from start to finish, we strongly invite you to apply. Along with the monthly stipend, here’s what you can expect to take away:

• Fundamental Editing Skills for Development Journalism: Beyond copy-edits, editing at The Bastion involves understanding your writer’s intent and standpoint vis-a-vis their story, helping them develop a rigorous structure and research method that meets ethical standards, and an understanding of the subject matter, besides the basic requirement of fact-checking and copywriting abilities. The fellowship provides the space to hone these skills.
• Editorial Management: Editorial work entails juggling copy, research, and marketing responsibilities along with remote writers. These multiple roles will develop fellows’ ability to manage human resources and journalistic production. Our internal meetings will push you to explore solutions to produce and scale digital development journalism.
• Networks: You’ll also have access to our network of partners and mentors with deep roots in the social, academic, and media sectors through bi-monthly meetings with experts of your choice. We also facilitate subsidised access to workshops, courses, and panels of interest to you, should you wish to attend. We expect and encourage you to build your own networks too.
• Post-fellowship Perks: We issue detailed LORs for all our fellows, be it post the fellowship, or for university or professional applications down the line. This opportunity also opens up our networks to the fellows, and we work with them to help secure future opportunities in domains of their choosing.
• We’re a fun, young, and enterprising team to work with. We promise to leave you with happy memories and valuable takeaways for digital media and development in India.

Who Can Apply

The Editorial Fellowship is only open to women candidates born after 01 January 1992. Individuals from marginalised communities are strongly encouraged to apply.