New York Times Has 1,200 Advance Obits In The Can

In a new feature up on mediabistro, New York Times obituaries editor Bill McDonald pulls back the thin black veil, if only slightly, on the obit-writing process — and it doesn’t sound terribly dissimilar to how Dana Carvey‘s Tom Brokaw handled Gerald Ford:

Despite the potential for awkwardness, anticipation is key when it comes to producing obituaries for major figures. “You have to maintain a bank of advance obits in order to have length and depth and fact-checking,” McDonald explains.