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It's always better to be right than first

In this fast-paced world, where everyone with a cellphone and a social media account is a publisher of news, being first matters.

We at the Daily Herald know full well that if someone beats us to the punch on a story, they're going to grab more audience than we will. Being first out of the gate with something will ensure that readers will come to us for it.

It used to be that radio stations had a leg up on all other news media. They could interrupt a song or a news broadcast with breaking news.

But with most broadcast and print news outlets having their own Web pages today - and all of them linked to social media platforms - that automatic advantage is gone. With everyone having access to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, it's a truly open playing field.

In this business, it's not just that minutes count to attract audience. Seconds do, too.

What separates responsible news outlets from everything else, however, is an ethos that the most important factor in telling the news is getting it right.

We publish only that which we can verify - with our eyes or ears or by a trusted and, hopefully, official source.

Readers of dailyherald.com sometimes express frustration that we have the basics of a story posted but that we might not have a name or certain details that help make sense of a story.

Rest assured we constantly update breaking news stories as details become available, as charges are filed, as suspects are caught.

There is a good chance that we know more than what you're reading, but we need to confirm something before we publish it.

The same cannot be said for social media, where rumor and conjecture run amok.

If you want the real scoop on a breaking story, try us at www.dailyherald.com.

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