Where does news come from?
News coverage – whether it’s for the paper, website or other news channels – is established by teams of editors working on various specialised desks – home, news, sport, business and so on.
Meetings are held each morning to focus reporting resources on the most important stories. The focus may be long term (investigative reporting or specific events, eg the annual UK Budget); short-term (the next week); and today
As the day progresses, each desk firms up a news list assigning stories to each of its pages. The Guardian is running an experiment whereby it puts its news list online (though probably not including the scoops!)
In the late afternoon, the main news conference is held to assign the best stories to the front page and hand over the running of the paper to nightside staff.
News stories can come from many sources
- Correspondents employed by the paper in the UK or bureaux in foreign cities.
- 'Stringers' – freelance journalists who are are paid a retainer.
- Government announcements.
- Company and stock market events.
- 'Wire copy' – press agencies such as Reuters and the Press Association.
- Diary events that are known about in advance.
- Public relations: agencies market the stories from their company clients.
- Product launches: eg, smartphones, cars.
- The public.
Scoops are sometimes kept off a newspaper’s website until midnight (London time) to stop them being lifted by the later editions of other UK papers. Some newspapers keep many of their stories off the website until the morning to protect newspaper sales and have 'fresh' content for the busiest times in the morning online. This strategy mimics the 'bulletin' system of TV news.
Reporters have a 'beat' to cover
In the same way that a policeman walks his beat, reporters go to certain places, talk to certain people and scan various digital sources for ideas and tip-offs:
(Twitter page):
- other magazines – often specialised industry journals – and newspapers.
- online sources, such as news aggregators, industry groups, Twitter, Facebook.
- conferences, exhibitions, product launches.
- political briefings.
- talking to people.
- the places relevant people eat, drink and stay.
- Covering daily sessions in parliament.
- Attending MPs' committee meetings.
- Networking around special interest groups.
- Press briefings (questions give a reporter a chance to make a mark).
- Ministerial briefings may be 'off the record': you can report what is said, but not that it comes from them.
- Trawling the bars and bars and tea rooms of Westminster and Whitehall.
- One-to-one interviews.
Twitter and other digital websites have become vital tools for journalists, who in turn often tweet regularly or have dedicated home pages:
- FT media editor Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson on Twitter.
- Robert Peston, was the BBC's business editor and regular news breaker
- Profiles of reporters and writers at Journalisted
The next page explores why people give reporters scoops ...
