Apr. 11, 2007

When you log on to MSN in the morning, do you expect the homepage to succinctly state Sanjaya's status after the latest vote-off on "American Idol"? Should you be alerted to Jack Bauer's shooting of Curtis on Season 6, Day 6 of "24" by the use of Roger Gold's photo? When a highly anticipated Torino Olympics event has a high likelihood of American gold, but will appear on delayed TV stateside in the evening, should the news be announced in a headline moments after the results are determined?

Clearly, you can tell where Frank, of Penn Lake, Pa., stands on the subject, given his January letter to the editor:

"I would very much appreciate it if you had a better system for indicating that spoilers might lie ahead. In this golden age of Tivo, I rarely watch TV programs as they're being aired anymore. As I'm browsing MSN, I occasionally read a headline with a spoiler right in the title, such as "So-and-so's torch is snuffed on 'Survivor'".  If you simply changed the title to "Find out who was voted off," I'd be able to steer clear of it easily if I wanted to. It's a simple thing to avoid, really, which makes it all the more irksome when it occurs.  Please show us Tivo users some love!"

Frank, MSN editors try to show everyone some love, recognizing people's passion when it comes to the entertaining side of their lives.  That's why we they walk the editorial tight rope daily, looking to share deserving developments on one side and, on the other, not wanting to spill the beans to people wanting to remain in the dark until they can watch the show that they may have recorded.

"It’s all about balance," says Dave Herman, MSN homepage daily editor. “On the one hand, we want to be an easy-to-use source of all the latest information – including entertainment news. And we don’t want to overly tease users by always saying ‘Click here to see what happened.’

“But we understand that more people are watching shows like ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ on their own time these days," he continues, "and they might not have seen the latest episode as of the next morning. In cases like this, you’re more likely to see a headline that doesn’t spoil the ending from the previous night.”

In general, the MSN editorial homepage policy is to use a teasing approach throughout the next day for shows that aren’t major news, i.e., “Which star was sent home on ‘Dancing With the Stars’?” If the item appears in a spot on the homepage with an image, the photo editors will select a picture that doesn’t give away the answer.

There are exceptions to this homepage standard, and the juggernaut that is "American Idol" transcends a simple policy. On a show watched by 30 million, teasing the results the next day is more likely to make MSN look stale than to spoil the show for someone.

The easy part is to use a teasing approach until the show has aired live or on tape-delay on the West Coast. But then the balance question, as with any news story, can get a bit squishy. MSN editors always are re-evaluating policies, which is why last week users were asked their opinion about reality shows that have aired.

The largest portion of respondents, 40 percent, prefer that the results be announced on the homepage; close behind, 38 percent urged MSN editors to include the results but only in the story a click away. The remainder, at 22 percent, want no news to be revealed. Period.

Well, that's not going to happen, given our mission to keep people informed, but we can get better at it.

Last October, one reader was annoyed at two headlines: "Sun's many lies" and "No baby for Meredith." Another was peeved at "Jerry Springer's final dance." Yet another took umbrage with a pronoun, saying, "Thanks to you, I now know the 'Biggest Loser' was a male."  All are examples of reasons why we recently have re-examined our editorial guidelines on the subject of spoilers and teases.

Users we won't fully accommodate are those like the person who wrote in November, having been without a TV for four years and trying to catch up on "Lost" via DVD rentals. But last week a user griped about a different "Lost" headline (which said, " 'Lost': Locke & Juliet switch places") because he catches the episodes the next day – on the Net.

As technology moves deeper into a self-programming era, the challenges of handling news takes on a new cast. That more people are using recorders or even watching "webisodes" makes editors' job a bit difficult.

Fundamentally, we acknowledge that people have a deep allegiance to series that have captured a spot in their lives. That's why editors have revisited guidelines and are striving to do better. Typically, the rule in place now is to observe a daylong moratorium on revealing plot advancements behind "Lost" or any other episodic show.

But MSN editors also weigh our responsibilities to inform our users.

The 24-hour rule should work in most instances, except in cases where reality TV – or reality, in the form of sportscasts like the Olympics –requires that we do our journalistic duty and report news.

Is the winner of "American Idol" news? Few would argue that. You'll see that news declared on the MSN homepage May 23, just after the finale airs on the West Coast.

A different set of people would want to stay in the dark for "America's Next Top Model," "Survivor" or "The Amazing Race," though fewer for "Grease: You're The One That I Want."

When it comes to weighing scale and scope, interpretation of policy is a delicate dance, made more challenging by cultural awareness, headline length and timing. But it's a dance in which we always strive to be stars.