Read All About It: A History of Breaking News at The Times

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Whether natural disasters, cultural moments or developments on the war in Ukraine, The Times has always sought fresh ways to be first to deliver the news.

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By Emmett Lindner

Readers might be accustomed to seeing New York Times breaking news alerts flash across their phone screens or be in the habit of checking one or more of The Times’s Live blogs as they’re updated throughout the day. But delivering breaking news is hardly new territory.

“So much of what we do at The Times is steeped in history,” said Suzanne Spector, a deputy editor on the International desk who oversees live coverage of events around the world. But now, she added, “we’re inventing and experimenting every day.”

Here are five examples of how The Times has gathered information or published breaking news since the newspaper was founded in 1851.

Wires From the Sea

At 10 p.m. on Feb. 3, 1908, The Times received a telegraph wire from the Cymric, an ocean liner sailing across the Atlantic. At 7:30 a.m., the ship had come across another vessel, the St. Cuthbert, ablaze 200 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia.

The wire came from a passenger, David B. MacGowan, aboard the Cymric. Mr. MacGowan, who happened to be a correspondent for The Chicago Tribune, sent the information to The Times that detailed the events of the disaster and the rescue efforts that took place. The Times’s Feb. 4 paper landed in the hands of readers around the country with the headline “ 15 Lost From Burning Ship ” emblazoned across the front page. The next day’s issue provided an even more robust account of the tragedy.

It was “among the first maritime disasters recorded in real time,” said David W. Dunlap, the lead curator of the Museum at The Times , which houses Times artifacts, and a former reporter who has worked at the publication for more than 40 years. (Mr. Dunlap has previously written a deeper account of the events surrounding the Cymric.)

Sharp Instincts

Though The Times’s lead story on April 16, 1912, featured a banner headline about the Titanic tragedy, The Times broke the news of the ship’s sinking in the previous day’s paper — which came out just hours after the Titanic hit the iceberg.

Back then, cable and telegraph copy was lowered in wooden boxes by rope from the wire room on the 18th floor of the Times building to the newsroom. At 1:20 a.m. on Monday, April 15, 1912, between the first and second editions of the newspaper on an otherwise sleepy night, “the rope flailed madly,” according to “The Story of The New York Times: 1851-1951” by Meyer Berger, a longtime Times reporter.

The first wire, from The Associated Press, said the Titanic had sent a distress signal — the ship had struck an iceberg.

The Titanic, owned by the shipping company the White Star Line, had been touted as unsinkable, but Carr Van Anda, The Times’s managing editor, looked at the facts: The ship had sent a distress signal, and 30 minutes later, another wire arrived stating that the ship was sinking. There was no further communication with the ship.

Mr. Van Anda ran the story, setting the wheels in motion for what has come to be considered one of the great disaster reports of all time. Other papers were cautious about the news. According to Mr. Berger’s book:

“All day Monday, and even into Monday night, the White Star Line withheld confirmation of what Van Anda had deduced — only to concede at last, with heavy heart, that he had been right.”

Mr. Van Anda’s instincts were correct: The unsinkable ship had sunk.

News on the Move

For eight weeks, a team worked around the clock to build the zipper, an electric bulletin board on the outside of the old New York Times office in Times Square. Operating the zipper were two men, James Torpey and Edward Linder . They received teletype messages from the newsroom, grabbed the appropriate letters from a cabinet and mounted them onto a conveyor belt that wrapped around the building and carried the news to the public.

On Nov. 6, 1928, the same night the zipper was first turned on, the presidential election results were arriving for the race between Al Smith and Herbert Hoover. One of the first stories that ran across the zipper was of Mr. Hoover’s victory.

The zipper also broke news. When a verdict was reached in the trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann — the man accused of the abduction and murder of the aviator Charles Lindbergh’s baby — the zipper ran the decision “ten seconds before the radio,” according to Times Talk, an internal company publication that ran from 1947 to 2005.

The Final Frontier

On July 20, 1969, two members of the Apollo 11 mission crew prepared to become the first humans beings to set foot on the surface of the moon — and The Times had been planning its coverage since March that year.

The day of the landing, The Times had set up an audio line direct from Mission Control in Houston, according to Times Talk , eliminating any delay that would have occurred from receiving accounts from reporters on the scene.

The landing happened in time for the paper’s first edition, which carried the headline “Men Land on Moon.” The Times then wrote fresh headlines for the next two editions, reflecting the progression of the event: “Man Walks on Moon,” referring to Neil Armstrong, and, finally, when The Times confirmed that Col. Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. had joined him, “ Men Walk on Moon .”

Moment to Moment

Today, The Times’s chief breaking news tool is the Live blog, which provides real-time coverage of an event — like Queen Elizabeth II’s death, awards ceremonies or midterm election results — in a reverse chronological format. A time stamp at the top of the page informs the reader when the blog was last updated, and a pinned post gives the broad strokes of what a reader needs to know. As major updates unfold, The Times’s social media team sends out breaking news alerts.

The process involves fervent reporting and a 24-hour operation of handoffs around the world to keep coverage humming. Much of the Live report also makes its way into the print paper.

“We’ve moved beyond writing newspaper stories and then updating those newspaper stories and updating them again,” Marc Lacey, a managing editor at The Times, said.

The continuing changes to Live coverage reflect reader appetites, and the format will continue to evolve. Julie Bloom, the editor of the Live team, said that “the best Live experience is when you can help guide readers through a story, as it’s unfolding in real time, and when we are helping answer readers’ questions in the moment.”

Live, Ms. Bloom added, is just one aspect of The Times’s work.

“It’s part of this very comprehensive, holistic way that The New York Times does journalism.”

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Advertisement. Supported by. Times Insider. Whether natural disasters, cultural moments or developments on the war in Ukraine, The Times has always sought fresh ways to be first to deliver the news. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. Give this article Give this article Give this article. Send any friend a story. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. +. By Emmett Lindner. Readers might be accustomed to seeing New York Times breaking news alerts flash across their phone screens or be in the habit of checking one or more of The Times’s Live blogs as they’re updated throughout the day. But delivering breaking news is hardly new territory. “So much of what we do at The Times is steeped in history,” said Suzanne Spector, a deputy editor on the International desk who oversees live coverage of events around the world. But now, she added, “we’re inventing and experimenting every day.” Here are five examples of how The Times has gathered information or published breaking news since the newspaper was founded in 1851. Wires From the Sea. At 10 p.m. on Feb. 3, 1908, The Times received a telegraph wire from the Cymric, an ocean liner sailing across the Atlantic. At 7:30 a.m., the ship had come across another vessel, the St. Cuthbert, ablaze 200 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia. The wire came from a passenger, David B. MacGowan, aboard the Cymric. Mr. MacGowan, who happened to be a correspondent for The Chicago Tribune, sent the information to The Times that detailed the events of the disaster and the rescue efforts that took place. The Times’s Feb. 4 paper landed in the hands of readers around the country with the headline “ 15 Lost From Burning Ship ” emblazoned across the front page. The next day’s issue provided an even more robust account of the tragedy. It was “among the first maritime disasters recorded in real time,” said David W. Dunlap, the lead curator of the Museum at The Times , which houses Times artifacts, and a former reporter who has worked at the publication for more than 40 years. (Mr. Dunlap has previously written a deeper account of the events surrounding the Cymric.) Sharp Instincts. Though The Times’s lead story on April 16, 1912, featured a banner headline about the Titanic tragedy, The Times broke the news of the ship’s sinking in the previous day’s paper — which came out just hours after the Titanic hit the iceberg. Back then, cable and telegraph copy was lowered in wooden boxes by rope from the wire room on the 18th floor of the Times building to the newsroom. At 1:20 a.m. on Monday, April 15, 1912, between the first and second editions of the newspaper on an otherwise sleepy night, “the rope flailed madly,” according to “The Story of The New York Times: 1851-1951” by Meyer Berger, a longtime Times reporter. The first wire, from The Associated Press, said the Titanic had sent a distress signal — the ship had struck an iceberg. The Titanic, owned by the shipping company the White Star Line, had been touted as unsinkable, but Carr Van Anda, The Times’s managing editor, looked at the facts: The ship had sent a distress signal, and 30 minutes later, another wire arrived stating that the ship was sinking. There was no further communication with the ship. Mr. Van Anda ran the story, setting the wheels in motion for what has come to be considered one of the great disaster reports of all time. Other papers were cautious about the news. According to Mr. Berger’s book: “All day Monday, and even into Monday night, the White Star Line withheld confirmation of what Van Anda had deduced — only to concede at last, with heavy heart, that he had been right.” Mr. Van Anda’s instincts were correct: The unsinkable ship had sunk. News on the Move. For eight weeks, a team worked around the clock to build the zipper, an electric bulletin board on the outside of the old New York Times office in Times Square. Operating the zipper were two men, James Torpey and Edward Linder . They received teletype messages from the newsroom, grabbed the appropriate letters from a cabinet and mounted them onto a conveyor belt that wrapped around the building and carried the news to the public. On Nov. 6, 1928, the same night the zipper was first turned on, the presidential election results were arriving for the race between Al Smith and Herbert Hoover. One of the first stories that ran across the zipper was of Mr. Hoover’s victory. The zipper also broke news. When a verdict was reached in the trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann — the man accused of the abduction and murder of the aviator Charles Lindbergh’s baby — the zipper ran the decision “ten seconds before the radio,” according to Times Talk, an internal company publication that ran from 1947 to 2005. The Final Frontier. On July 20, 1969, two members of the Apollo 11 mission crew prepared to become the first humans beings to set foot on the surface of the moon — and The Times had been planning its coverage since March that year. The day of the landing, The Times had set up an audio line direct from Mission Control in Houston, according to Times Talk , eliminating any delay that would have occurred from receiving accounts from reporters on the scene. The landing happened in time for the paper’s first edition, which carried the headline “Men Land on Moon.” The Times then wrote fresh headlines for the next two editions, reflecting the progression of the event: “Man Walks on Moon,” referring to Neil Armstrong, and, finally, when The Times confirmed that Col. Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. had joined him, “ Men Walk on Moon .” Moment to Moment. Today, The Times’s chief breaking news tool is the Live blog, which provides real-time coverage of an event — like Queen Elizabeth II’s death, awards ceremonies or midterm election results — in a reverse chronological format. A time stamp at the top of the page informs the reader when the blog was last updated, and a pinned post gives the broad strokes of what a reader needs to know. As major updates unfold, The Times’s social media team sends out breaking news alerts. The process involves fervent reporting and a 24-hour operation of handoffs around the world to keep coverage humming. Much of the Live report also makes its way into the print paper. “We’ve moved beyond writing newspaper stories and then updating those newspaper stories and updating them again,” Marc Lacey, a managing editor at The Times, said. The continuing changes to Live coverage reflect reader appetites, and the format will continue to evolve. Julie Bloom, the editor of the Live team, said that “the best Live experience is when you can help guide readers through a story, as it’s unfolding in real time, and when we are helping answer readers’ questions in the moment.” Live, Ms. Bloom added, is just one aspect of The Times’s work. “It’s part of this very comprehensive, holistic way that The New York Times does journalism.” Advertisement.