When is an event too old to report?
This is a dilemma all media face. When deciding, news editors and directors go through a mental list of questions:
- When is the event? Will it be stale by the time it’s reported or already covered by the other media?
- Where is the event? What resources will it take to cover the story?
- How many other events are taking place at the same time? Does it conflict with other coverage obligations?
- How much space or time is available to report the events in newspapers or on the air?
- How important is the event? What impact will it have on readers and viewers, and what does it mean to the participants of the event?
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For a weekly newspaper like The Western Producer, the first question is a serious consideration.
Our challenge is to provide more background, give the latest developments and perhaps provide more analysis from the key players.
One example is coverage of the two farmer demonstrations held in Saskatchewan on the same day last week, in Prince Albert and Regina.
Our Regina reporter, Karen Briere, was in Prince Albert covering the meeting of agricultural ministers, so this left our Regina bureau open.
Let’s run through the list of considerations about the Regina demonstration.
- By the time our readers received their papers, it would be nine days or more after the event happened.
- Covering the Regina demonstration would have cost us extra in staff and resources that day.
- It was a busy news week. Competition for media coverage was lively.
- While the demonstration in Regina showed people’s frustrations with the government, what did it gain?
The agriculture ministers – provincial and federal – were in Prince Albert at the time.
In the end, rather than a separate news story on “there was a demonstration in Regina”, our staff included mention of it in overall coverage about the agricultural ministers’ meeting in Prince Albert.
You will see some of that coverage in this issue.
