Last week I had an interesting experience: for the first time, almost five and a half years from home, a reader recognized me on the street! Actually it wasn't exactly on the street, but in the restaurant here near the NZN Group office.

It went like this: when weighing my plate on the “per kilo”, an attendant named Maicon asked if I “worked at Baixaki” (the NZN Group's best known website). I confirmed the information and asked how he knew. To my surprise, Maicon said he had seen me in a video, "going deep inside." Since I do not usually appear in this type of material, he was probably referring to one of the short videos of Duty TecMundo, which are recorded in the middle of the newsroom, and I, unaware, must have inadvertently passed behind the host.

We talked a little more about the sites, explained that, in fact, I am responsible for Mega Curious and went happy lunch of life, feeling practically a former BBB. While this experience is quite common for colleagues who perform other roles, such as presenters, it was unheard of for me.

Behind the scenes of the newsroom

The explanation for this is that, since I am part of the NZN Group, I have held “backstage” roles. I started working here in June 2010 as a proofreader. And you know how it works: The reviewer only shows up when something goes wrong. I had a lot of contact with all the writers, either to correct a typo or to help understand the functioning of the crase, but it was better to go unnoticed by the readers. Even so, sometimes I would even show up in the comments to apologize for a failure or to defend the poor copywriter from complaints when he was right.

This was my routine until February 2014, when I was invited to play the project for a general news site, In Summary. That's when, for about a year, I wrote and signed stories, but this site didn't have the same reach as TecMundo or Baixaki. Since In Summary had some guidelines in common with Mega Curioso, I ended up exchanging many ideas with my boss, Gustavo, who was the editor of the curiosity site at the time.

Commemoration of NZN Group's Top 10 Hearing in Brazil

In 2015, Gustavo became Vice President of Content and took on new roles at NZN Group, making it very difficult to give such attention to Mega. So in June he ended up calling me to replace him in coordinating the site, and here I am! I was very happy with the news and, with the help of Mega Curioso's wonderful team, I got the hang of things.

Then, again, I went back to the “backstage”, because the authors sign the articles (after all, they wrote it!). Don't get me wrong: I really enjoy curating content, tracking hits, thinking about new features for the site, and distributing tasks to people I think will identify with the mission. Of course, I am happy with life when I realize that I made the right choices, either because a copywriter liked the story he received or because readers were interested in the story. What I want to highlight is that, like the reviewer, the editor is a little distant from the public.

As I mentioned in the previous editorial, I felt it was time to get closer to the readers, so I am sharing a bit of the site's history and my own trajectory. After all, sometimes when we occupy these more “anonymous” roles, we don't even realize that we are loved by so many people. So, Maicon, thank you so much for speaking up. You made my day happier.