[snowwrestler]

Reporters often rely on social input to decide what to cover—when someone they trust tells them, “you should check this out.” Then there is an exploratory phase where they gather some basic facts and reach out to contacts to see if it is in fact newsworthy, and maybe to start gathering quotes to add context and fill out the story. At some point they say “this is real” and start working with a editor on a schedule to publish it.

Whether a paper is on a preprint serve is not a big deal. If a lot of experts are excited about it, that’s a story anyway.

And if it falls apart later due to some surprise flaw… well that is also a story!