We have said it once before and we will say it again: Don’t just read the headline.
Believe it or not, this editorial is not about the Observer adopting a squirrel, it is about reading past the headline.
Election night coverage is stressful for every newsroom. Clearly, on television, anchors rotate to provide 24/7 coverage on the election. At the Observer, we have a limited amount of staff, preventing round-the-clock coverage.
In addition, we have strict deadlines because we have to print the paper.
The Observer was given a deadline of 9:45 p.m. by the Albuquerque Journal, whose editor wanted stories from us.
For those unaware, the Journal and the Observer are under the same ownership.
Yes, we know the articles didn’t make it into the Wednesday Journal, but at the time, we didn’t know they wouldn’t.
After the Observer sent its articles to the Journal Tuesday night, we proceeded to publish them online around 10 p.m.
Each article published clearly stated the information in the report was as of press time.
“As of press time” means as of the time of the deadline. The headlines to the stories reflected the information in the articles.
At the time the first round of articles was published online, Republicans were taking a majority of the county races. The headlines would reflect this.
These articles would later be updated as more information came in around 12:30 a.m. Obviously, people only read the headlines and complained that votes were still being counted, which was written in the article, if they would have read it.
It is not uncommon for newspapers to print as results are still coming. As stated previously, papers have a deadline to meet. Regardless, the Observer is open to reviewing the way it covers elections to better suit readers.
However, meet us halfway: Read past the headline.
