The Citizen publishes on Wednesday and Friday, but that doesn’t mean that we have until Wednesday or Friday morning to gather information for that day’s edition.
With the advent of the internet, some folks seem to have lost track of the fact that print takes a little bit longer to get into their hands. It’s not quite as immediate — though in many ways it is more enduring. A tradeoff, of sorts. But I digress.
Our deadline to make any changes in a Wednesday or Friday edition is the day before, at noon. That means that when there is a breaking story, as there was last week with the disappearance of Ben Kilmer, we go with the most up-to-date information we have at press time, but it may not be totally current by the time the paper hits the street.
A reader contacted me this week, upset that we did not have a photo or much information on the search for Kilmer in last Friday’s edition. The reason for that is simple: there was not much information available as of Thursday morning, and we insist on confirming facts before we put them in print, especially on such an important subject. By Friday, there was a lot more information available.
That doesn’t mean the Citizen is out of date, however. Rather than wait for our next print edition to give readers all the latest, as we would have done in years past before the internet and social media, we now update important breaking news like the Kilmer search on our website (www.cowichanvalleycitizen.com).
In this case, we continued to update the story throughout the holiday weekend, so there was ongoing public awareness of the search.
And if there’s ever anything you think we’ve missed, please feel free to contact us and let us know. More likely than us ignoring it is that we just haven’t heard about it yet!
In the same vein, if you have an event coming up and you want us to put something in the paper about it, it’s a good idea to get it to us at least a week in advance. One day in advance, even on the day of our press deadline (the day before the paper hits the street), is likely not enough lead time for us to find a spot for it. And of course publication day is definitely too late.