College Sports Information Directors of America

This blog post is by Brad Phillips, the author os the Mr. Media Training Blog and president of Phillips Media Relations, a media and presentation training firm with offices in New York City and Washington, D.C.

See this post online.

Journalists receive dozens of unsolicited phone calls and hundreds of unwanted emails each day. Their Twitter networks churn out an endless stream of updates, links, and photos. Their RSS (really simple syndication) feeds offer innumerable stories from their favorite blogs and websites.

With all of that information constantly coming in, it’s not hard for reporters to find potential news stories. But finding news stories they can actually report on? Now that’s the hard part. That’s because every news organization has constraints on which stories their reporters can cover and how they can cover them.

The post below describes the five factors that drive news decisions in virtually every newsroom around the world – time, speed, space, profit, and bias.

As one client told me, his local television stations (thankfully) opted against covering a fire at his plant since cameras couldn’t spot flames shooting up through the roof! Without the compelling visuals, it just wasn’t interesting to them.

Other ideas?
Some who commented on this post added: "coverage decisions can be based on which story would be more fun to cover over another one," and another commented that "many news decisions are made based upon what’s happening to individual reporters in the newsroom - we all tend to pay attention to news relating to what's going on in our daily lives."

Related News

Calendar

Important Dates

All Events +

• 06/23/26 / 11:59 P.M. M/W At-Large Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
• 06/30/26 / 11:59 P.M. M/W Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA)
• 07/07/26 / 12:00 P.M. W At-Large Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
• 07/08/26 / 12:00 P.M. M At-Large Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
• 07/14/26 / 12:00 P.M. M Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA)
• 06/07/26 / All Day 2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
• 06/08/26 / All Day 2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
• 06/09/26 / All Day 2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
• 06/09/26 / 11:59 P.M. Baseball Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
• 06/10/26 / All Day 2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
• 06/16/26 / 12:00 P.M. Softball Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA)
• 06/16/26 / 12:00 P.M. M/W At-Large Academic All-District Released; National Voting Begins (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
• 06/16/26 / 11:59 P.M. M/W Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America Nomination Deadline (NCAA, NAIA)
• 06/23/26 / 12:00 P.M. M/W Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-District Released; National Voting Begins (NCAA, NAIA)
• 06/23/26 / 12:00 P.M. Baseball Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA)
• 06/23/26 / 11:59 P.M. M/W At-Large Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
• 06/30/26 / 11:59 P.M. M/W Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA)
• 07/07/26 / 12:00 P.M. W At-Large Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
• 07/08/26 / 12:00 P.M. M At-Large Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
• 07/14/26 / 12:00 P.M. M Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA)
• 06/07/26 / All Day 2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
• 06/08/26 / All Day 2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
• 06/09/26 / All Day 2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas
• 06/09/26 / 11:59 P.M. Baseball Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)
• 06/10/26 / All Day 2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas