About Me
Hey there! Thanks for visiting my site!
My name is Mohammed Rayaan and I am a journalist based in Chennai, India.
I'm a mechanical engineer turned writer. (I know! How cool is that?!) I just did the usual thing when joining college; I took up engineering and then decided what to do in life. However after my second semester, I realized that I wanted to be a writer. So I created this blog and started sharing all my writings. I then began interviewing interesting people I came across on social media like fellow writers, engineers, photographers and other creative artistes.
This blog eventually helped me land my first job at News Today, an English evening daily newspaper. I joined here as an intern in May 2018 and became a full-time reporter from July 2018. I worked with an incredible team of passionate young reporters and editors who helped me learn the basics of journalism and writing. I covered articles on varied subjects including human-interest stories, features, entertainment, food, fashion, film and book reviews, civic, railways, politics, business, education, health, science, and technology.
Later I was assigned to edit business, international and arts/culture pages which involved gathering the latest articles from syndicate media sources or from my fellow reporters, edit the stories, and make them crisper with a strong headline. As NT is an evening daily, all articles need to be filed before 12 PM. So, I had to write my articles and compile other pages before the deadline. This gave me the ability to work under pressure with ease and come up with story ideas quickly. I was in charge of uploading articles of pages I edit on NT website which gave me a chance to learn basic SEO, photo editing and WordPress. Along with website updation, I also handled social media pages of NT including Facebook and Twitter, thereby helping me learn digital marketing.
I also contributed to News Today's subsidiary edition, Talk Media, neighbourhood tabloids distributed across Chennai. I wrote for Mylapore Talk, Kodambakkam Talk and Vadapalani Talk and covered articles on varied subjects including human-interest stories, features, civic, and other area-based news. Reporting for these weekly tabloids helped me build a great network of local sources who consistently support me to write articles on multiple issues. I worked for News Today and Talk Media from May 2018 to March 2020.
I then joined DT Next, an English daily newspaper owned by the Dina Thanthi Group of Publications, on March 2020 and was associated here until June 2020. I worked here as features and an entertainment writer. I wrote articles on interesting subjects such as human-interest stories, features, food, fashion, and entertainment reports focusing on Tamil and Hindi-film industry. During my stint, I interviewed artistes from Kollywood, reviewed movies and learned to handle DT Next's Variety and Entertainment Page.
My byline has appeared on Live Wire, Better India, 30 Stades and I am a contributing writer for The Opinioc, a publication in the Medium. I also run a Substack newsletter; it's a place for people who love to read fiction, true stories and some news. I am also on ScrollStack. I have also published short stories. I have created content for startups like Cambrionics Life, an educational startup; Shariq & Co - a civil engineering company. I currently work as a Sub-Editor for The Hindu BusinessLine.
🏆In March 2022, I won a full scholarship from the Facebook Journalism Project to pursue the 100-days online Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism (City University of New York). As part of the course, I started The Chennai Emailer — a local journalism project that brings out original human-interest features & news compilation from Chennai.
My name is Mohammed Rayaan and I am a journalist based in Chennai, India.
I'm a mechanical engineer turned writer. (I know! How cool is that?!) I just did the usual thing when joining college; I took up engineering and then decided what to do in life. However after my second semester, I realized that I wanted to be a writer. So I created this blog and started sharing all my writings. I then began interviewing interesting people I came across on social media like fellow writers, engineers, photographers and other creative artistes.
This blog eventually helped me land my first job at News Today, an English evening daily newspaper. I joined here as an intern in May 2018 and became a full-time reporter from July 2018. I worked with an incredible team of passionate young reporters and editors who helped me learn the basics of journalism and writing. I covered articles on varied subjects including human-interest stories, features, entertainment, food, fashion, film and book reviews, civic, railways, politics, business, education, health, science, and technology.
Later I was assigned to edit business, international and arts/culture pages which involved gathering the latest articles from syndicate media sources or from my fellow reporters, edit the stories, and make them crisper with a strong headline. As NT is an evening daily, all articles need to be filed before 12 PM. So, I had to write my articles and compile other pages before the deadline. This gave me the ability to work under pressure with ease and come up with story ideas quickly. I was in charge of uploading articles of pages I edit on NT website which gave me a chance to learn basic SEO, photo editing and WordPress. Along with website updation, I also handled social media pages of NT including Facebook and Twitter, thereby helping me learn digital marketing.
I also contributed to News Today's subsidiary edition, Talk Media, neighbourhood tabloids distributed across Chennai. I wrote for Mylapore Talk, Kodambakkam Talk and Vadapalani Talk and covered articles on varied subjects including human-interest stories, features, civic, and other area-based news. Reporting for these weekly tabloids helped me build a great network of local sources who consistently support me to write articles on multiple issues. I worked for News Today and Talk Media from May 2018 to March 2020.
I then joined DT Next, an English daily newspaper owned by the Dina Thanthi Group of Publications, on March 2020 and was associated here until June 2020. I worked here as features and an entertainment writer. I wrote articles on interesting subjects such as human-interest stories, features, food, fashion, and entertainment reports focusing on Tamil and Hindi-film industry. During my stint, I interviewed artistes from Kollywood, reviewed movies and learned to handle DT Next's Variety and Entertainment Page.
My byline has appeared on Live Wire, Better India, 30 Stades and I am a contributing writer for The Opinioc, a publication in the Medium. I also run a Substack newsletter; it's a place for people who love to read fiction, true stories and some news. I am also on ScrollStack. I have also published short stories. I have created content for startups like Cambrionics Life, an educational startup; Shariq & Co - a civil engineering company. I currently work as a Sub-Editor for The Hindu BusinessLine.
🏆In March 2022, I won a full scholarship from the Facebook Journalism Project to pursue the 100-days online Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism (City University of New York). As part of the course, I started The Chennai Emailer — a local journalism project that brings out original human-interest features & news compilation from Chennai.
Skills
- Reporting and Writing Articles on subjects including Features, Entertainment, Food, Fashion, Film and Book Reviews, Civic, Politics, Business, Education, Health, Science and Technology.
- Editing and Copywriting.
- Content Creation for Startups and Entrepreneurs.
- Creative Writing.
- Blogging and Web Content Development.
- Writing for New Media Platforms like Medium and Substack.
- Email Newsletter Writing.
- Basic SEO, Digital Marketing, Canva Graphics, WordPress, and Google Analytics.
Contact
- For PR professionals looking forward to send me a pitch to cover a story, email me at rayaanthehindu@gmail.com
- I also do content writing for clients. You can reach me at rayaancontent@gmail.com
- For any other message, reach me at rayaanjournalist@gmail.com.
- For secured communication, mail me at rayaanwriter@protonmail.com
- For queries related to my newsletter, you can reach me at thechennaiemailer@gmail.com