And the world record for the largest number of bylines on a single story goes to the New York Times, which used no fewer than 16 journalists to write its obituary of Fidel Castro, a labour it began in 1959 and has constantly updated ever since.
It is inevitable, perhaps, that the obit of a great world figure should be the winner here, but inevitable, too, that a few eyebrows be raised over the sheer extent of the coverage of Castro’s end.
Had he died in 1989, 1999 or even 2009, all those pages turned and TV hours filled would be understandable. But the Castro issues now are essentially retrospective – just as the issues for the regime he left behind are essentially unknowable. So many words, so many pictures – because of so many years to prepare them?
