From Manila to the Vatican

When the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had died, people were again fascinated that it took major wire agencies, international print and broadcast media “only minutes” to release long-form obit stories and video packages about him.

- TONYO CRUZ

That’s part of their jobs. In the case of the New York Times, for instance, it has an editor and staff dedicated to writing — in advance — obituary stories about America’s and the world’s most important persons.

I’m quite certain that many members of the world media had made drafts of their Pope Francis obit stories, months or even years before. And when the pope’s health became severe or serious in February, they updated those stories, just in case.

We as the audience of media won’t have it any other way. Because as soon as media breaks such a big piece of news, we would want not just the breaking news on loop or on repeat. We would want feature stories, analysis, commentary, and video packages about such news.

We could also be sure that media are now gathering information, and writing draft articles for the profiles, biographical notes, and features on the prospective new pope to be elected in the conclave starting on May 7. They cannot be caught totally unprepared.

Of course, everyone knows by now about the white smoke as a signal that the cardinals have elected a new pope. But as soon as the cardinal protodeacon makes the “habemus papam” announcement, and states the new pope’s first name in Latin and his chosen papal name, media would be obligated to report about him.