Macon.com is your source for real-time Middle Georgia election results

For a number of years now, Telegraph journalists have used the phrase “deadline now” to describe when we post news stories, photos and videos — particularly when it involves breaking news. Not too many years ago the emphasis at news meetings was on the next day’s paper. Even after we adopted a deadline-now approach to publishing news, our emphasis on print didn’t shift much. Our meetings were largely about what would be the 1A and Local & State “centerpiece” stories and whether we already had assigned photos.

We did this in the face of clear evidence that people want their breaking news now, an hour from now and throughout the day. Readers come looking for it. The more you provide, the more they come. When they know something has happened — Prince is found dead, a police officer is killed while chasing a fleeing suspect, tornadoes are headed our way — they pull out their phones and tablets or click on a new tab on their desktops or laptops, expecting to find the news.

Our recent web and print redesign has pushed us further toward thinking digital first. That is why coverage of the May 24 elections will be largely a digital story. Not that we haven’t emphasized online election coverage before. But our precious time was spent divided between print and macon.com, sometimes to the detriment of real-time results. On Tuesday, we’ll talk to voters about their decisions, and we plan to be with as many candidates as we can find. As the votes are tallied, we’ll deliver them.

Journalists find themselves in the swirl of a complex transition — “transformation” probably is a more accurate description. We have more readers than ever, but we can’t serve up that news the way we always have. We have readers who love the newspaper. Many of them mix their print with web access, but not all of them. If you are a Telegraph print subscriber, you also have access to our digital edition. A good number of you now take advantage of both platforms. Others struggle with digital access.

On Tuesday, those of you who expect breaking news will get a heaping dose of it at macon.com. We hope those of you who have not signed up will call us (478-744-4435) and let us help you figure out how to use your E-edition or the website.

Unless Tuesday brings a pleasant surprise and the vote tallies come in earlier than is customary from the multiple counties we will be monitoring, our newspaper Wednesday will not likely be where you will find full election results. Those will largely be yesterday’s news. We’ll be focused on looking deeper at the numbers. (Did voters cross the Republican-Democrat divide, and did it matter? Why that razor-thin margin of victory in a commissioner race? What is on the immediate agenda of the victors?)

As readers’ habits change, so must we. If digital is where you find out what is happening, print must continue to get better at explaining the why. I’ve written before that we have added an Insight page three days a week to present longer-form journalism on insightful topics. While we must change, we will continue to value all of our readers.

This story was originally published May 23, 2016 at 9:10 PM with the headline "Macon.com is your source for real-time Middle Georgia election results."