Skip to contentArnav Chakravarty

Strota

Newsroom software manages stories. Nobody designed it for the reporters.

Introduction

A story breaks at 7:42 PM. What we see is the news. What we don’t see is everything that happens before it. Newsroom systems today are built to manage content, not to support the people who produce it. Field reporters operate in unpredictable environments, using fragmented tools and informal support networks. Strota bridges this gap. It is a human-first newsroom operating system that captures early signals, preserves context, and structures chaos before publishing.

Details
  • RoleUX research, information architecture, UI for the bureau chief and the field reporter
  • Year2025
  • Duration12 weeks
  • TeamTeam of 5
  • ToolsFigma, FigJam, Google Forms, Google Meet
  • DomainEditorial Tooling
Scope

  • Newsroom software starts at the desk. The story starts in the field.

    1. FieldWhatsApp, calls, memoryNo system
    2. DeskCMS
    3. PublishingWeb, print, TV
    4. AnalyticsDashboards
    Five gaps before publishing
    • No first signal
    • Not built for chaos
    • No escalation path
    • No memory
    • Feels like surveillance

  • 3interviews

    4empathy maps

    • Field reporter
    • Desk editor
    • Bureau chief
    • Senior beat reporter
    “The weakest layer is field-to-bureau coordination, not publishing.”
    Across all four, everyone…
    • Thinks about urgency
    • Feels deadline pressure
    • Sees fragmented tools
    • Says “verify and send”
    • Does coordination by hand
    • Hears speed versus accuracy

    Common painFragmented, and blind before publishing

    Common gainClarity, without extra steps

  • Why do reporters stay on WhatsApp? Five whys down:

    1. Why 1Informal tools feel faster
    2. Why 2The system ignores field reality
    3. Why 3Fear of being replaced
    4. Why 4Built without asking reporters
    5. Why 5No say in the system

    Root causePushed from the top down, never pulled from the bottom up. Strota had to be something reporters would choose.

  • 4personas researched

    2designed for, by me

    • Designed for

      Early-career field reporter

      22–28 · 0–3 yrs

      Clear escalation, and someone who knows where they are

    • Designed for

      Bureau chief

      35–50 · 10+ yrs · 5–8 beats

      Who is free, and structured updates from the field

    • Researched

      Desk editor

      28–45 · 5–15 yrs

      Clean submissions and clear story ownership

    • Researched

      Senior beat reporter

      35–50+ · 10–20 yrs

      Context from past stories, without micromanagement

  • Is this news?

    Look it up

    Make sense

    Communicate

    Reflect

    Mood
    AnxiousPressuredClearerWaitingRelief
    Pain

    When to escalate?

    Slow checks

    No past cases

    Blind after filing

    No feedback

    Fix

    First Signal

    Voice to log

    Similar stories

    Live status

    Edit compare

  • Each tool is good at its part. None is built for the reporter in the field.

    Field-firstEscalationSafetyMemoryPublishing
    WhatsAppPartlyNoNoNoNo
    Wolftech GoNot used or available in IndiaPartlyPartlyPartlyNoYes
    AP ENPSNoNoNoPartlyYes
    Dalet, iNews, RossNoNoNoNoYes
    StrotaYesYesYesYesPartly

    Does it well Partly Not at all

  • How might we · 1 of 10

    …let reporters escalate urgent news in under 10 seconds, with no forms?

    Must have

    Must have · harder

    • Voice to structured log
    • Smart routing
    • Escalation prompts
    • Workload dashboard

    Must have · easyBuilt first

    • Ultra-fast First Signal
    • Urgency tagging
    • Story-bound chat
    • Reporter availability

    Good to have · harder

    • “Last time this happened…”
    • Similar story detection

    Good to have · easy

    • 30-second Smart Brief
    • Colour-coded status
    • Sensitive flag
    Easy to build →

  • Strota

    Field reporter

    • First Signal

      • Voice capture
      • Urgency + beat
      • Sensitive flag

    • Field Log

      • Live updates
      • Attachments
      • Smart Brief

    • Draft & Filing

      • Auto-draft
      • Headline assist
      • Send to CMS

    Shared

    • Verification

      • Tip-off check
      • Cross-channel
      • Duplicates

    • Safety

      • Live location
      • Check-ins
      • Emergency

    • Memory

      • Past cases
      • Beat history
      • Mentor notes

    Bureau chief

    • Coordination

      • Smart routing
      • Escalations
      • Workload

    • Analytics

      • Clearance speed
      • Bottlenecks
      • Reach

    • Admin

      • Roles
      • Beats
      • Routing rules

Process

12 weeks in all
  1. 01

    Discover & interviews

    3 weeks

    Mapping how a story moves before publishing, then interviews with a desk editor, a bureau chief and a senior reporter.

  2. 02

    Define

    2 weeks

    Five whys, empathy maps, personas and journeys, narrowed to two people: the field reporter and the bureau chief.

  3. 03

    Prioritise & structure

    3 weeks

    Competitors, a must-have matrix and the information architecture.

  4. 04

    Design

    4 weeks

    The field reporter’s app and the bureau chief’s dashboard.

Final design · Bureau chief

One screen for everything the bureau chief decides.

The command centre

Live stories down the left, the most urgent one in the middle, and anyone in danger on the right. Click a story, a button or the sidebar to move around.

The command centre
  1. Every live story, from breaking to awaiting approval
  2. The most urgent story first, with Assign and Broadcast a click away
  3. A reporter in danger, with Dispatch Help
  4. Where every reporter is, and where the danger is
  5. Stories waiting for a desk, assigned in one click
  6. Missed check-ins, flagged by how overdue they are
Final design · Field reporter

The app a reporter can use with one hand, on the move.

Start from the day’s assignments

Breaking assignments from the bureau, what’s happened to stories already filed, and which desks are free. Tap the screen, or the tab bar, to move around.

Start from the day’s assignments
  1. Breaking assignments, sent by the bureau chief
  2. What’s happened to stories after filing
  3. Open stories, one tap away
  4. Which desks are free right now

Impact

Interviews showed reporters had no dedicated tool for the work before a story, so Strota became one.

  • Most reporters coordinate over WhatsApp, Slack and Teams, with nothing built for the job.
  • Strota brings that coordination into one system, with a separate view for each role.

What I learned

  1. 01

    Design for where the work really happens.

    The real coordination lives in chat threads, not in the newsroom’s software, so the product had to start there.

  2. 02

    One story, many users.

    Reporters, editors and bureau chiefs need different views of the same story.

  3. 03

    Interviews moved the brief.

    Talking to people in the field showed the gap wasn’t publishing; it was everything before it.