We need a little more time to make FactorDaily awesome

We started FactorDaily with the premise that tech has become mainstream in our lives and needs to be covered from that perspective — and not in the transactional manner that it’s covered in digital media today.
We want to be at the intersection of tech and everything — tech and society, tech and your workplace, tech and personal space, tech and culture, tech and commerce, tech and relationships, tech and food, and so on.

We want to view technology through the prism of the mainstream, not as a commodity but as a catalyst. As a former editor of mine would say, “Practise lighthouse journalism, not lampost journalism.”

In the past few weeks, we have worked hard towards that goal and, as we learnt new lessons, we found ourselves changing our content strategy a few times. That, combined with our obsession with perfection and creating a team that works together with impeccable coordination, has led to a few delays. We promised our website would be up and running by April 15, but we are moving this ahead by a month, to May 16th.

What’s a startup without a few delays and setbacks, right? We had told ourselves we will keep the bar high in our work and we are hellbent on keeping it so.

Much of what we are doing is pushing the envelope in media as we know it out there. We are learning as we go along and are making mistakes once in a while.

Doesn’t this mean a loss of face? Sure, it does. As editor-in-chief of FactorDaily, I am smarting over this decision, as is the rest of the team. But we figured that it is much better to stay true to our promise, even if it is delayed by a few more weeks, rather than break the promise. We will always, always remain true to you, even if it means we have to hold the mirror to ourselves.
Does this mean we have no new, original content for you? No.
In some ways, going live on social channels such as Facebook and Medium ahead of the FactorDaily.comwebsite launch makes a lot of sense for us, as we are fascinated by how the media publishing landscape is evolving and what this means for media companies. More and more, the next generation of readers are discovering stories and insights across social platforms. And so we are happy to be alive and active on platforms where the readers and consumers of our content are living.
Already, on Monday April 11, we went live on Facebook with a smart narrative by FactorDaily’s culture editor, Shrabonti Bagchi, about how design is changing human behavior in India. Later in the day, our lifestyle technology editor, Ramarko Sengupta, captured an insightful conversation with Pramod Varma, one of the architects of India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) that promises to transform banking in the country forever, and reimagine the way you and I use money.
Earlier today, my colleague Pranav Dixit published a post on how cab drivers are ruining their health as they scramble to earn more. Sengupta also had this interesting conversation with Milind Soman about whether wearable devices are of any use for the fitness buffs.
And finally, we are starting a series of focused conversations with the good folks at The Takshashila Institution in a show called “The Wonk Factor” aimed at unpacking disruptions across different sectors.
You can discover stories and insights about technology and its impact on urban Indians on our Twitter andMedium channels too.
Thank you for your patience. We’ll see you on FactorDaily.com in May.
Pankaj
Pankaj Mishra is the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of FactorDaily. He has previously worked with the Economic Times, Mint, and TechCrunch. Follow him on Twitter at @pankajontech or send him an email.