Reporting in Real Time

NYT public editor Clark Hoyt on the different pressures between print and web publishing:

Even in the print world, Roberts said, editors often have to make snap decisions on deadline. “I don’t think we should be driven to throw out any rules or standards for the sake of haste,” he said, “and generally I don’t think we do.” That’s true, as far as it goes, but print deadlines are established, and journalists work all day toward them. The Web has no deadlines, just the anxiety that the guy down the street will beat you to the story, and you have to get yours published fast.

★ Sunday, 8 February 2009