Editor’s Choice: ‘Global Hawk missing.’ On the alert in Nikkei Asia’s newsroom

Akito Tanaka shares his weekly reflections and recommendations The Global Hawk is programmed to continue flying even if communications are lost, and it can return autonomously to a predetermined location. (Photo by Konosuke Urata) Hello from Tokyo. On Tuesday afternoon, a breaking news alert flashed on the website of Japan's national broadcaster, NHK. "Communication has been lost with an Air Self-Defense Force Global Hawk aircraft off the coast of Tottori prefecture." In today's newsletter, I'd like to share what goes through my mind and what happens in the Nikkei Asia newsroom when an unexpected event like this hits. My first step is to alert the news editor responsible for our newsroom's day-to-day operations. The news editor immediately contacts our Japan editor, who then assigns reporters to gather facts and publish a breaking news story based on the information available. The news is also immediately shared with our audience engagement editors, who begin preparing breaking news alerts for the Nikkei Asia smartphone app and email. During those first few minutes, I start thinking about how significant the incident could become and how we should cover it on Nikkei Asia.

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