The plan for each day’s newspaper generally takes shape over the course of the preceding day. Some stories are in the works for days in advance, but often it’s a turn-and-burn process. The stories we’re writing today will for the most part run in tomorrow’s newspaper – then again there are those days when things don’t end up exactly as planned.
The planning for today’s paper (7/20) had been in the works since last week and we had a package scheduled on the desperate straits of the folks who are running out of unemployment benefits. During the day we had a report on county unemployment numbers for the month of June, so we added that to the front page mix.
Then it all changed. The unemployment benefits package survived a scare — OK, really it was the editors who survived the scare — when it was announced Congress would approve a benefits extension. Turns out our story focused on people who apparently will not be eligible even for the extension because they’ve been unemployed for so long. So that story stayed on Page 1.
Everything else changed: By late afternoon, we had added an AP story about the cost of the Kyron Horman case (more than $400,000 so far, with another $438,000 requested). Then we got word that state legislators had reached an agreement to at least temporarily fund Oregon Project Independence, which allows seniors who need some care to stay in their homes rather than in much more expensive nursing homes. That had been the topic of a major piece on 1A in the Sunday paper, so it went back on 1A for Tuesday.
Then we got word that a judge had issued a temporary restraining order to stop work on the removal of Gold Ray Dam. Made room on 1A for it, too. Unemployment number story moved to the Business page.
So the plan we had at 4 p.m. looked nothing like the paper we were building at 6 p.m. No complaints here; we’re happy to have news, especially in the middle of summer when the day’s next best story might be about pig races at the fair. Don’t give up hope, you pig-racing fans. it could make Page 1A tomorrow. We’ll see what develops.
