But When Did It Close?

Here’s one of my bugbears: communications which announce the reopening of a hotel, flight route, bridge or some such without specifying when the thing in question previously closed. Maddeningly, this happens a heck of a lot.

It’s important because time is critical in assessing the story’s potential strength. A flight route relaunching after two decades is much more newsworthy than one paused only for 18 months; so too the return of a grand hotel following five years of renovation than one worked on for just half a year or less.

As such, this information should always be provided. If you worry it weakens your story by revealing the relatively short period of XXX, too bad; far better to have a weakened story than risk wasting a journalist’s time and getting in their bad books.

Another thing to always ensure you include is whether the hotel, flight, museum or whatever was completely closed during the stated period. I’ve often heard news of hotels returning after a multi-year repair, only to subsequently establish that they were actually part-open for most of it. Again, that’s far less newsworthy.

In short: if you’re announcing something has returned, always also specify when it paused — and be clear about whether it completely ceased or not.