Stability For Our Time

KnoxNews.com now has several stories up covering the reaction to Lame Kiffin's departure.

And that raises an interesting question. Is it better to wait for more detail, or go with what you know?

WBIR had the story well before KnoxNews, but there was no detail and no pictures. KnoxNews was well behind, but when they posted, they had details, pictures and video. My guess, and that's all this is, is that the KnoxNews may be understaffed on the night shift. The crew that stays overnight is fine for handling routine operations, but when a story breaks, there aren't enough bodies to get things done. And it's called breaking news for a reason. It happens fast. There isn't time to roust a couple extra bodies out of bed to cover the story. Whoever is on hand has to rush out into the field to cover the story, then come back and write it, then post it.

That will slow things down.

On the other hand, as newspapers face more and more of a budget crunch, how many of them can afford to keep enough people overnight so that they can maintain bodies in the field and at the paper to write and post in near real time?

One solution might be to allow a reporter to post a story directly from the field. Not to Twitter, or facebook, but to the KnoxNews site itself, where non social media types would go to find it.

Of course, if reporters post directly to the website, then what will editors do?

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