In the fast-paced world of news reporting, the ability to deliver information swiftly without compromising its accuracy is paramount. For anyone familiar with the demands of this profession, the constant tension between speed and meticulousness is apparent. It requires a delicate equilibrium, ensuring that sources are vetted and facts are checked, all while striving to break developing stories withspeed.
This crucial balancing act is true in all news departments within the extensiveValnet library of brands. Whether we’re talking about the latest developments in the gaming industry, groundbreaking news in film, or the ever-evolving landscape of technology, news teams across all of Valnet’s diverse brands operate under this fundamental principle.
We’re going to take an in-depth look at how several Valnet sites balance speed and accuracy in their reporting!
Gaming News: Playing The Balancing Game
As with nearly every media industry, news happens fast in the gaming world. There is a plethora of game developers and publishers, and they are all announcing games, delaying games, updating games, revealing games, what have you, all at the same time.
In order to keep up with this rush of gaming news, the Valnet Gaming sites need to balance speedy reporting with fact-checking. We spoke to the incredibleGeorge Foster from TheGamerand the amazingDalton Cooper from Game Rantto see how they keep up with the rapid nature of the gaming news cycle.
“By its very nature, news can be incredibly fast-paced,” George shares with us. “While TheGamer’s news focus is often more community-focused, we still have more than our fair share of big stories that break out of nowhere. When it comes to ensuring accuracy, we always make sure that the source is either an official one, like when it comes from a developer or publisher, or someone we know to be trusted with reports, like insiders. There are times when a story is big enough that we have to roll the dice a little and trust our gut, but we’ll always make sure we’re being careful without definitive statements unless there’s proof. ‘Reportedly’ is key!”
Marrying speed and accuracy is something that comes from experience…
Dalton also acknowledges the necessity for a quick turnaround time, but stresses the importance of getting things right at the same time. “Accuracy is the most important thing, but the reality of this type of work is speed is also a must. When some truly breaking news happens, myself or another editor will usually take point on it because that guarantees we can get it up as fast as possible with no mistakes. Marrying speed and accuracy is something that comes from experience, but it’s important to nail down accuracy first and develop habits necessary to make sure everything in a post is correct.”
When it comes to checking an article idea for accuracy, TheGamer relies on a mix of verifying sources and trusting their gut-knowledge of a game and its community. “It depends on the type of story that we’re covering, really,” George relates. “If it’s a breaking bit of news then the source is the most important thing to check, especially when so many people can pretend to be someone they’re not online. That’s step one for sure, and arguably the most important thing.”
He continues, saying, “In the case of our community stories or in-game discoveries, our news team tends to be pretty well-versed in whatever game we’re covering. As fans, we usually know if something being reported in our favourite games is true or not, so it then becomes a case of knowledge and being thorough when checking.”
According to Dalton, his work on Game Rant has instilled in him an almost instinctive habit of double-checking his work. “When I am writing stories myself, I double-check every objective claim I make. For example, if I am talking about a game’s critical reception, I will double-check its review scores onOpenCriticor its user scores on Steam/other platforms instead of just assuming I know. I am so entrenched in the industry that it’s rare I ever need to change anything when fact-checking, but it doesn’t take long and is necessary to avoid mistakes. When editing posts, I do the same. I double-check everything from release dates to the spelling of names to make sure that what we’re putting out is accurate.”
We asked both Dalton and George about memorable stories they’ve covered during their time as news editors, and while George is more general about his enjoyment of weekend news coverage, Dalton gets specific about one instance of breaking news.
“We’ve covered so much news in the four years that I’ve been here now that it’s hard to pick out something in particular!” George admits. “One thing I will say is that TheGamer is in a rare position where we have editors on during the weekend, which means we’re often first in line or not far behind when news suddenly drops during the quiet days of the week. My bias might be showing a bit here as someone who started out as a weekend editor, but you’d be surprised at just how much comes out of the woodwork when you’re not expecting it.”
Dalton, on the other hand, tells us a tale of good-bad news. “Years ago, my wife used to work at a video rental chain we had called Family Video. A perk of her job was that she was allowed to bring pre-release games home. This meant I was able to get my hands on Metal Gear Survive before everyone else andI broke the news that the game effectively made you pay for additional save slots.”
Screen News: Watching Out For Breaking Stories
Perhaps the largest part of the Valnet portfolio, our screen sites work to cover the biggest news when it comes to films, streaming services, television shows, and many other aspects of pop culture. It’s a densely populated media space, which means prepping for breaking huge stories is important. We talked toMaggie Lovitt from ColliderandAlexander Harrison from Screen Rant.
Maggie’s method for getting news out fast involves prepping early. Using Valnet’s proprietary CMS, Collider builds the houses for likely potential big stories before they’re official. “Like many news sites, we build shells in anticipation of stories breaking — such as renewals, cancellations, or rumored castings,” Maggie shares. “These are built with all of the key information about the topic, which allows for quick, timely publication once the stories break. For all other breaking stories, we utilize nut graphs: an opening paragraph with all of the key information, which we expand on after publication.”
I have instilled our entire team with a strong belief that facts matter, whether we’re covering the latest Netflix casting news or delivering in-depth reporting about the current administration’s impact on the film industry.
As for fact-checking, Collider relies on the expertise of their senior editorial team. “The vast majority of our breaking news pieces are written by our trusted team of senior writers,” Maggie tells us, “who have a keen understanding of journalistic integrity and a vested interest in delivering high-quality, fact-checked articles. In other cases, our editorial team handles breaking news pieces, editing as they go to ensure accuracy. I have instilled our entire team with a strong belief that facts matter, whether we’re covering the latest Netflix casting news or delivering in-depth reporting about the current administration’s impact on the film industry. We also have strict guidelines for sourcing news, and have developed excellent relationships with publicists who entrust us with background information, embargoed releases, and provide confirmation for breaking news that might not pass the ‘sniff test’ at first glance.”
When Maggie and Alex were asked about vivid memories of times they broke big news, they both remembered timeshugefranchises revealedhugenews.
Maggie was quite literally flying high when she broke her big film news. “One of my favourite memories was when I broke The Marvels trailer while 30,000 feet in the air, coming back from Star Wars Celebration Europe. Despite being on airline Wi-Fi, we managed to beat several trades, which is always a source of pride for the team. News never sleeps, and neither do I.”
Alex’s brightest memory of working with Screen Rant’s news team, by pure coincidence, also involves Star Wars Celebration.
We aked Alex and Maggie the same question, entirely separately, but they both had vivid remembrances of the same event, we swear.
“The first day of Star Wars Celebration 2023 is a really vivid memory for me. I had just been promoted to co-running SR’s Core News team, and we were collaborating with the newly created Star Wars team for this event. Because it was being held in the UK, several key people […] were covering it from the ground. And since I’m based in Europe, on a similar time zone, I was asked to help out with things on the backend throughout. We planned ahead and made sure to have several writers around from our team, to help, we thought, with overflow. But what I didn’t realize until the event started was that myself and my then-co-lead, Graeme Guttmann, were the only editors online to handle news coverage.”
As it turns out, Alex and Graeme’s preparation couldn’t prepare them for the onslaught of news they were about to receive. “And one early panel that day, a Lucasfilm overview, turned into a news bonanza. For about an hour, all they did was announce major new projects and debut first-looks, from a surprise trio of Star Wars movies to the first full trailer for Indiana Jones 5 – and spotty wi-fi meant only two of the four people attending had working phones to pass information along. In some cases, when someone couldn’t send an important message themselves, we worked off pictures of their phone screen taken by whoever had connection.
“What was supposed to be a slight step forward for us in our new jobs ended up a sudden, frenetic stress test of our new processes. And… they worked! We quickly and efficiently published a flurry of articles, passing things to writers the moment they messaged to confirm they were online. It was equal parts stressful and exciting, and when all was said and done, very gratifying work.”
Tech News: Innovating On Reporting On Innovation
OurValnet Tech sitesfollow the ups and downs of the tech industry, assiduously covering breaking news stories about the latest products to get announced or inside scoops from some of the biggest-name tech brands around. When asked how their teams handle the balancing act of speed versus accuracy, Andrew Martonik, Operations Manager behind Valnet Tech, told us it’s all about the team.
“It comes down to always having people scheduled to cover the news cycle all day (and night, using other time zones!) to spot the trends right as they form. The faster you can spot newsworthy items, the less pressure you’re under to actually compile and write the content. If you’re showing up late, no amount of fast typing can dig you out of that hole. So, having people available at all hours gives us an inherent speed advantage. Beyond that, you need to have editors and writers who are well-versed in the process and can pull together those articles quickly when needed. We train writers with timeliness in mind, and ensure that when the pressure is on they can be swift and also accurate.”
…you may never betray reader trust by writing an article quickly that may not have the facts straight.
Accuracy is monumentally important and once again, Andrew points to the power of teamwork and the crew Valnet Tech has assembled when it comes to fact-checking. “Keeping a tight team of trusted experts that we can rely on is key to all aspects of publishing, but particularly with fast-paced news. We have well-tenured editors who have built up a team of news writers that they trust, and have ensured that they will never publish something they’re unsure of. Timeliness is important,” he admits, “but you can never betray reader trust by writing an article quickly that may not have the facts straight. It’s something that writers and editors learn over time, and we have locked into our process at the very base level.”
This process has brought about some fantastic memories of breaking news, including one notable exclusive. “A good recent example comes from our Editor-in-Chief atXDA, Rich Woods. He worked with a tipster to bring the exclusive news thatMicrosoft was going to kill off Skype. These types of stories often come around quickly, so Rich and his team deserve big kudos for being on top of it and being first to report. It’s why XDA is one of the go-to places for all things Microsoft nternet.”
Final Thoughts On Breaking News
News departments on all Valnet brands grapple with the struggle of being both speedy and accurate in their reporting. In the rush of the contemporary digital landscape, the demand for publishing news immediately often clashes with the necessity of verifying information thoroughly.
Everyone faces immense pressure to be the first to break a story, yet pubbing unverified or inaccurate information can severely damage our credibility. Not to sound too much like the MCU’s Thanos, but our ultimate goal is to achieve a state of “perfect balance,” ensuring reporting is simultaneously timely and trustworthy. It’s a standard that every news department in Valnet’s immense portfolio of brands strives to uphold!
