Newspapers missing breaking news

Copia, one of my favorite St. Louis restaurants, was set on fire early this morning. A series of fires were set around the patio before 3 a.m.; my brother told me firetrucks were still on the scene when he was leaving town at 7:45 a.m. I could not find a story about it online — and I checked the Post-Dispatch site first, of course. They had a story (no photo) posted by 11:30 a.m.; Fox 2 posted a story (and video) at 8:32 a.m.

If newspapers are going to be news organizations, they have to be able to break news. Which means they have to post it in a timely fashion. Eight afters after the incident started — and after more than 50 people were evacuated — is way too late. At the very least, they could have put up a line to say the story was developing, that details were coming, that readers should send in their photos and video and call with their reports. Otherwise, the dire predictions about the death of newspapers will be true.