4 ms·

The New York Times has just released a 7 page obituary profiling the life and influence of Osama Bin Laden: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/02osama-bin

The New York Times has just released a 7 page obituary profiling the life and influence of Osama Bin Laden: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/02osama-bin-laden-obituary.html?hp=&pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/02osama-bin-laden-ob... It's a great read. I'm wondering how they pulled it off, though - did they have the copy for an obituary filed away, and pulled it out and edited when the news broke?

marshray 15y ago
did they have the copy for an obituary filed away, and pulled it out and edited when the news broke? Yes, that's how they do it. It used to be that hilarity would ensue when people found news orgs' internal web servers exposed on the net. Don't recall it happening in awhile though. Guess they learned their lesson.
jdp23 15y ago
Yes, newspapers have ready-to-go obits for important people on the shelf, ready for updating with death info for situations like this
pak 15y ago
Yep, that's exactly how obit departments at major media outlets operate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obituary#Media http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obituary#Media
ridruejo 15y ago
Yes, it is common practice. Sometimes they accidentally publish some of this obituaries, which leads to some embarrassing situations :)
dporan 15y ago
Yes, apparently it's a common practice: http://www.slate.com/id/2226505/ http://www.slate.com/id/2226505/
tcskeptic 15y ago
Yes, newspapers keep obituaries of significant figures on file and updated.
heliostatic 15y ago
NPR keeps them filed in the research library. It's a surprising range of people who are kept on file.
Empedocles99 15y ago
It's pretty common for them to have pre-written obituaries for famous people that are likely to die soon. See: Debate over Britney Spears' Obituary http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-01-22/news/17150316_1_hollywood-obituary-young-star http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-01-22/news/17150316_1_hollyw...
kinkora 15y ago
it's common practice for many media outlets to maintain "obituaries" of famous figures around the world before they die. If i'm not mistaken, I think it was in 2008 where Bloomberg accidentally published Steve Job's obituary which sparked a rumour that he died even though he was perfectly healthy.
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fleitz 15y ago
Yup that's pretty much how they do obits, interestingly the Nobel Prize was created as a result of this policy when Alfred Nobel's obit was prematurely printed by the French press after his brother's death.
pmcginn 15y ago
Odd, it says he was eaten by wolves. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkhwiuRbOEE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkhwiuRbOEE
adamtrilling 15y ago
Big newspapers keep obits pre-written for people they know they're going to have to write an obit for. It's not difficult, since when someone famous dies you can write about their accomplishments, legacy, and whatnot while they're still alive, and keep a blank spot in the lede about how they died. And it's nice, because you can write a much better article when you have a lot of time. But it can lead to some interesting firedrills when someone dies unexpectedly: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2009/06/michael_jackson_obit_the_backs.html http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2009/06/michael_... And sometimes the obituaries are pre-written many years in advance. Which leads to incidents like NYT's obit for Elizabeth Taylor, whose author died several years ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/movies/elizabeth-taylor-obituary.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/movies/elizabeth-taylor-ob...

marshray 15y ago

did they have the copy for an obituary filed away, and pulled it out and edited when the news broke? Yes, that's how they do it. It used to be that hilarity would ensue when people found news orgs' internal web servers exposed on the net. Don't recall it happening in awhile though. Guess they learned their lesson.

jdp23 15y ago

Yes, newspapers have ready-to-go obits for important people on the shelf, ready for updating with death info for situations like this

pak 15y ago

Yep, that's exactly how obit departments at major media outlets operate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obituary#Media http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obituary#Media

ridruejo 15y ago

Yes, it is common practice. Sometimes they accidentally publish some of this obituaries, which leads to some embarrassing situations :)

dporan 15y ago

Yes, apparently it's a common practice: http://www.slate.com/id/2226505/ http://www.slate.com/id/2226505/

tcskeptic 15y ago

Yes, newspapers keep obituaries of significant figures on file and updated.

heliostatic 15y ago

NPR keeps them filed in the research library. It's a surprising range of people who are kept on file.

Empedocles99 15y ago

It's pretty common for them to have pre-written obituaries for famous people that are likely to die soon. See: Debate over Britney Spears' Obituary http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-01-22/news/17150316_1_hollywood-obituary-young-star http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-01-22/news/17150316_1_hollyw...

kinkora 15y ago

it's common practice for many media outlets to maintain "obituaries" of famous figures around the world before they die. If i'm not mistaken, I think it was in 2008 where Bloomberg accidentally published Steve Job's obituary which sparked a rumour that he died even though he was perfectly healthy.

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fleitz 15y ago

Yup that's pretty much how they do obits, interestingly the Nobel Prize was created as a result of this policy when Alfred Nobel's obit was prematurely printed by the French press after his brother's death.

pmcginn 15y ago

Odd, it says he was eaten by wolves. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkhwiuRbOEE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkhwiuRbOEE

adamtrilling 15y ago

Big newspapers keep obits pre-written for people they know they're going to have to write an obit for. It's not difficult, since when someone famous dies you can write about their accomplishments, legacy, and whatnot while they're still alive, and keep a blank spot in the lede about how they died. And it's nice, because you can write a much better article when you have a lot of time. But it can lead to some interesting firedrills when someone dies unexpectedly: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2009/06/michael_jackson_obit_the_backs.html http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2009/06/michael_... And sometimes the obituaries are pre-written many years in advance. Which leads to incidents like NYT's obit for Elizabeth Taylor, whose author died several years ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/movies/elizabeth-taylor-obituary.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/movies/elizabeth-taylor-ob...