Bird flu exclusive on a Thursday, from a Sunday

Slightly inside baseball, this, but an interesting moment tonight for the hardcore media watchers out there: the Observer, the Sunday sister title of the Guardian, breaks a story on the web about bird flu tonight. Turns out:

“A consignment of dead turkeys from the Bernard Matthews’ plant in Hungary, where there have been recent outbreaks of bird flu, could be the source of the disease’s outbreak in Britain last week.”

Strong story, and one the hardcore will note is a story from a Sunday newspaper, broken on the web on a Thursday night. Unlike in the US, British daily newspapers and their Sunday sister titles typically have separate staffs, and a healthy rivalry. So it would have been an anxious wait for press time, which might have ended in disappointment as someone else got the story.

Instead, there’s a coup for the Observer’s reporting, and an agenda setting story fully 48 to 60 hours before the traditional moment in the limelight for a Sunday paper. Trebles all round.