ERRATUM: I apologize for misreporting last time that Bataan Day was commemorated on Tuesday (April 8), instead of Wednesday (April 9, yesterday) as what actually happened on schedule.

As I sometimes do when writing calendar items, I did last Monday an advancer on this year’s program at the Dambana ng Kagitingan (Shrine of Valor) on Mt. Samat in Pilar, Bataan.

In my hurry to move the column, I failed to correct my advance draft saying that the program would be “today” (Tuesday) when it should have said “tomorrow” (Wednesday).

Aside from that wrong dating, everything else seemed all right. (A friend kidded me that at least I scooped everybody.)

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THE ADVANCER: Doing an advancer, btw, is a common practice in the trade. It is often resorted to when we anticipate lack of time in beating the deadline.

For instance, if the US Secretary of State is arriving at 6:30 p.m. at the Manila airport for a brief visit and your deadline is 7 p.m., how do you rush your masterpiece on his arrival?

You do an advancer. Before his arrival, you research on the purpose of his visit, talk with his opposite number here, review pending bilateral issues, examine his itinerary, the relation of his Manila stop to other discussions in the region, etc.

If you have been on the beat long enough, this should not be too difficult. On the basis of what you can gather and verify, before you go to the airport you do an advancer saying that the US Secretary was scheduled to arrive last night (your story would come out the next day). You add the other information and analytical notes explaining the significance of his visit.

With your advance efforts, you can produce at least 10 column-inches of text, which is enough to protect your paper from being scooped on his arrival.

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DESK LINK: But that is not the end of your problems. While the desk will process your advancer, the editor may not use it until it is confirmed that the US official actually arrived and your story is validated.

You have to post yourself at the airport and/or other places where your quarry is likely to be available and willing to answer a few questions.

Once you spot him and confirm his arrival, you call the desk pronto so they will know how to handle your story.

You are not the only news source of the desk. The editors will be calling their own sources at the embassy, the foreign office and elsewhere and monitoring other news organizations. (You will be surprised at the reach and resourcefulness of editors and researchers.)

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REWRITES & ERRORS: You might be able to get near the visitor and shoot a question (which must be judiciously framed to elicit quickly a clear newsworthy response). Sometimes you are able to pop only one question before the official ducks into a waiting car.

Once you get a good news peg from his answer (while pushing your deadline), you whip out your cell phone and dictate to the desk a new lead for your advancer. The desk will put your lead-all on top of your first story or weave it nicely into your advancer’s new lead.

That is still not the end of your problems. Depending on what other information you got from the visitor and the embassy officers on hand, you might have to do a more extensive rewrite of your first story. You ask the desk if they need such a rewrite and how fast.

This illustrates the kind of work that reporters of your favorite newspaper do to bring you only the latest news in the least possible time with the least confusion and maximum depth.

While my illustration is mainly print-oriented, the news teams of the broadcast media operate more or less in the same manner, except that the TV people have their film clips and the radio guys their sound bites.

Sometimes we media mortals trip and fumble, but we correct errors the first chance we have.

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GHOULISH JOB: There is another kind of story that is written in advance.

(I use the generic term “story” to refer to all editorial materials in a newspaper — news story, columns, editorials, horoscopes, features, anything that is text, non-advertising and non-photo or graphic. In like manner, in the broadcast media, everything is a “show” — be it a talk show, a newscast, an interview, a TV movie, quiz show, etc.)

The unusual advancer that I want to mention is the obituary. In many big newspapers, there is one man who does nothing but research to update the life/career stories on important people who are likely to die anytime.

The reason is the same. Once that newsmaker dies, we should be able to jump immediately into action and share with readers everything significant and interesting about him/her.

We do not start interviewing the subject’s family, friends, associates, classmates, etc. only when he dies.

There is something ghoulish about the work of this special obit writer. He visits his “prospects” and tactfully talks to them — all the while gathering information and vignettes that would enrich the obit and features to be written on the person.

So when this obit writer comes visiting, he is just working on an advancer, not necessarily implying that he is advancing anybody’s demise.