Ever wonder why, in our print edition, you are sometimes reading about what Wiscasset selectmen or maybe the school committee were set to take up Tuesday, two days before the date on the newspaper? Why isn’t that story instead about what they did do, since, when the paper hits newstands or your mailbox, the meeting has already happened?

The answer is timing: Those key Wiscasset panels usually meet Tuesday nights, twice a month for selectmen, once a month for school committee; and the paper comes out two days after that. But we put the paper to bed, that is, send the pages to press, Tuesday afternoons, hours before those meetings. So, the pages have flown, and if we wait to share the information we already had ahead of the meeting, from the selectmen’s or school committee’s packet, print-only readers will learn about that topic nine days after the meeting – kind of takes the new out of the news.

To avoid this, we review those packets and see if one or more pressing, or otherwise newsworthy, items are on the agenda or in the supporting documents. If so, we might write a story. That often means contacting the town and/or someone else for some more information or insight. Rarely does a document give the whole picture, although it can tell a lot. Interviews and emails help fill in the blanks. And we know we can report additional details and any outcome in the post-meeting story online and in the next week’s print edition.

Read wiscassetnewspaper.com if you can; the news may be published at any hour, any day, so it is sometimes newer than what we have by press time once a week. But if you are off-line full time or just prefer your local news on paper in your hands, know we still do our best to let you know about current topics and then follow up by covering those meetings.

Week’s positive parting thought: Congratulations and best wishes forever, Class of 2022 and families! Enjoy our graduates’ pages in this edition (our thanks to the pages’ sponsors), then enjoy graduation and our coverage online and in the June 16 print edition.