Author: Thomas Oliver
Published: November 23, 1996
Last Updated: November 29, 1996
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• Don't wait to begin planning for the really big event. As soon as it's announced it's coming your way, or as soon as you decide you are going to cover a really big event, you should assign an editor to take charge. That editor may not devote herself full time to the planning, but she is to become the newsroom thinker and expert. This should be a senior editor, as she will need to get cooperation from different departments.

• Do involve as many departments as possible early in the process. For the Olympics, every department had an Olympic liaison. This doesn't need to be the department head. In fact, this is a good way to give some exposure to an up-and-comer.

• If you are to staff your enterprise, do select really good folks. Don't staff it with folks you are unsure of what to do with.

• Don't limit yourself to the main event. Do cover the fans or participants and the peripheral activities ó in other words, the experience.

• Do make it as easy on your readers to navigate events and enjoy the experience. Don't just tell them what's happening, tell them how to get tickets, how to get there, what to wear and what celebrities to look for.

(When the Atlanta Olympic Committee published its ticket brochure and we read it, it was obvious that it was more complicated than any tax return. We could have simply reported how confusing and contradictory and labyrinthine the brochure was, but instead we published a special section and offered readers a step-by-step guide to ordering tickets, a cheat sheet of sorts. Anyone filling out our worksheets could then easily transpose them onto the ticket order form. It was such a popular section that we had to put it back on the press and run 75,000 additional copies. Oh yes, we did order up a story of a real brain surgeon's and rocket scientist's efforts in filling out the actual ticket brochure without benefit of our worksheets.)