Our sweet spot for articles is generally in the 6-24 hour window meaning we have a pretty good idea of what will be posting within that period of the future. This is because most articles are written at some point in this window of time before being published and are prescheduled. Frequently, we have to preempt this schedule to address breaking news.
Regularly, we receive sale notices from companies that want us to inform our quite substantial reader base about their sales. It’s a free service that we provide to industry. But, all too often, we receive these notices at the last moment and we are expected to just put them up regardless of anything else we may have planned. Unfortunately, this phenomenon tends to interrupt weekends and holidays (SSD published 365 days a year).
On an editorial level, these sales don’t do anything for SSD but we share them in order to let our readers know about deals. But, because these sale notices are increasingly being sent to us just as the sale commences, we must take measures to better integrate them into our editorial queue.
Consequently, beginning 9 July, 2013, sale notices must be submitted 48 hours before their desired publication. For example, if we receive a notice of a sale beginning on Thursday 11 July, we’d need to receive that notice on 9 July. If it shows up on 11 July, it’s going to be published on the 13th.
We are investing a great deal of time and money in a new solution that will allow vendors to post their own sales, free of charge. This will be great for vendor and reader alike, as it will be a one-stop for deals. But, until then, this policy will have to suffice in order to prioritize the editorial content of SSD.