When Big News “Breaks.” Important events that occur unexpectedly are the real test of the editor’s ability to organize his staff quickly and effectively. What is involved in arranging to get all phases of a big news story is shown by the manner in which such an event as the attempted assassination of Mayor Gaynor of New York on August 9, 1910, was handled by the New York papers. The following summary of an account given by one of the city editors illustrates the methods employed.[3]
The first news of the attempt to assassinate the mayor came at 9:30 A.M. in the form of a news association bulletin which read:
Mayor Gaynor was shot this morning while on the deck of the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse in Hoboken. It is rumored he is dead.
The city editor on a morning paper at once got in touch with as many of his reporters as he could reach on the telephone. The first three reporters that he telephoned to were told the substance of the bulletin and were sent to Hoboken to get the details.
The second bulletin from the news association, received a few minutes after the first, was as follows:
The mayor was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital, Hoboken.
As soon as another reporter was available, the city editor told him to go to St. Mary’s Hospital to see the doctors and to report the result at once. The fifth reporter was sent to find Mrs. Gaynor at her city home or at her country house, as the city editor knew that she was not accompanying the mayor on his trip abroad.
The third news association bulletin, or “flash,” gave these facts concerning the assassin:
The man who shot the mayor has been arrested. His name is James J. Gallagher. He lives at No. 440 Third Ave.
The city editor thereupon gave a reporter this assignment. “Go up there; get all you can about him. Get a picture. Find out to what political party he belongs. Run him to the ground and phone me later; I may be able to give you something additional.” To another reporter the city editor said: “Gallagher is to be arraigned in the police headquarters in Hoboken; go over there quickly.”