What's an early edition?

Before radio became ubiquitous, newspapers were how folks received "validated" information about their communities.

(Folks might argue about how "valid" the content of some newspapers was and is, but, the fact is, newspapers pass information though a process which, if it doesn't make it valid, at least makes it come from a known point of view. We believe that validation process of selection, preparation and display, is part of what adds value to this Web site. It is a place you can go on the Internet and know that the content has been validated to the best of our abilities. But, I digress.)

When major events took place, newspapers would update their pages and rush a new edition to the streets. Round-by-round updates of major boxing matches were not uncommon. Today, newspapers do the same thing for really major events, but usually only one or two "Extra" editions. Radio and television have captured the immediate news market and the Web is making threatening sounds.

Major city newspapers would also run several editions every day to keep up with the natural flow of the news. A morning edition with the overnight news developments, followed by editions for the closing of the stock market, even the last race at the track, all in the course of a normal day.

To distinguish the editions, some newspapers put little stars in the date line on page one. The "fivestar final" might be the last edition of the day.

The practice is rarely followed today. More common is the geographically oriented edition in which a newspaper's circulation area is broken into zones of common interest.

Today, zones are more likely to include differences in both editorial and advertising content on many pages.

So, what has an "Early edition" got to do with an on-line version of a publication? The avpress.com Early Edition goes on line at 6 a.m. courtesy of what in the Unix world is called a "cron" event. When "cron" sees that it is 6 a.m., the classifieds are made available on our Web site untouched by human hands.

The Early Edition simply means that the classified ads for the current publication are available.

The Early Edition home page is replaced by the news page before 10 a.m. on most days and before noon on Saturdays. Sunday's news content appears on Monday.