BEHIND THE NEWS | Breaking news all day, every day the new normal

The unfolding drama that started a few weeks before the start of SA’s now extended 21-day Covid-19 lockdown period should have provided an indication of what was to come in the world of digital news.

Suddenly our weekends were getting shorter and after-hours work longer as late-night updates and briefings became the norm.

Still, we were ill-prepared.

When talk of working remotely, from home, started, many said it would mean an easy ride. Waking up late and working in your underpants; and only when you felt like it to keep up with the bare minimum. This could not be further from the truth.

 The coronavirus has turned our whole world on its head.

Late-night briefings, press releases and tip-offs at all hours of the evening have, over the past few weeks, become the new norm.

Twelve, 18-hour and even longer days are not unusual for reporters and editors.

Gone are the times when you can walk away from your desk after work knowing that your shift is done. There are no more shifts.

In crisis times, people crave news. Sometimes that means getting out of bed at 11.30pm because you’ve just received a breakdown of the provincial results or you’re waiting patiently for a ministerial — or even presidential — briefing to start, hours after it was scheduled.

DispatchLIVE has surged ahead in terms of online traffic to our website and various social channels, nationally and locally.

There’s no real secret as to how or why. It’s quite simple. We just don’t stop. Extraordinary times require extraordinary effort.

And our team has stood up and embraced the challenge to ensure that we can give our readers our very best when they need it most.

Long hours, sleep deprivation and losing out on precious family time aren’t the only challenges.

Our work demands that we deliver news as fast as possible, but still maintain the same level of quality and accuracy our readers are accustomed to. That can be challenging.

Covid-19 cases updates are provided by the national department of health or sometimes the president. But provincial breakdowns are supplied by departments in the provincial government.

Often the details provided by the different officials contradict those from others and we have to hunt for the facts.

Sometimes the information itself changes.

Initial results may give locations of positive cases as one of our cities, when, in fact, they were simply the testing locations, and the people actually live in nearby towns.

So even details are fluid and fact-checking is essential.

We have provided all our Covid-19 related news online free.

This, of course, means that we’re directly affecting on the income of our print product, the Daily Dispatch, which is already under immense pressure as the entire country reels from the effects of closed businesses and junk status, and why we ask everyone who can to support us in bringing you the news every day by subscribing to one of our affordable packages.

For now, however, we will continue to bring you the latest news, day and night. ​