Reading order · daily schedule
How the day reads on Pulse Vault Wave
The portal publishes in timed waves rather than a continuous scroll. Each wave has a defined scope, a sign-off editor, and a place in the back-issue index. This page lists every format a reader may encounter in a single city day.
If you read only one wave, you get a partial picture by design. The morning file carries overnight material; the evening file carries the day’s summary. Together they form a complete index entry for that date. Midday updates and fix notices fill gaps when the city changes faster than the wave schedule.
Definition
What a wave is
A wave is a bounded set of verified items published together at a fixed time. Waves are not updated in place; if material changes after a wave closes, it enters the next applicable wave or a standalone fix notice. This keeps the back-issue room auditable — a reader can return to a morning file and know exactly what was published at 08:30 SGT.
Waves differ from push alerts or social posts because they carry collective sign-off. The section editor approves the wave as a unit, not item by item in isolation. That discipline slows publication slightly but prevents partial or contradictory filing during fast-moving municipal updates.
Stepped list
The daily reading order
- 07:00–08:15
Pre-wave preparation
Desk editors verify overnight items against source documents. Nothing is visible to readers during this window. The index bar on the home page updates at 08:15 to show active desk assignments for the morning file.
- 08:30 SGT
Morning file
Primary wave of the day. Contains overnight municipal notices, transport advisories issued before 06:00, and school announcements scheduled for morning release. Typically twelve to eighteen items across six desks.
- 12:30 SGT
Midday update
Carries only material that changed after the morning wave closed. A revised bus stop relocation, a corrected meeting time, a new town council document. If nothing changed, no midday update is published — silence is preferable to repetition.
- 17:45 SGT
Evening file
Summarises the city day with context notes where a single paragraph would mislead. Evening items include festival eve preparations, next-day road works, and community events opening that evening. Signed by the section editor.
- As needed
Context note
Three paragraphs maximum when a developing story requires framing beyond a standard desk item. Context notes are labelled distinctly in the index and do not replace the underlying desk filing.
- As needed
Fix notice
Published when a verified error is found in a published item. Fix notices reference the original back-issue entry, state the correction plainly, and remain permanently linked. Target turnaround: four hours from verification.
Detail
Back-issue indexing
Every published item receives an index card in the print room: date, desk, wave, headline, source count, and fix-notice status. Digital copies mirror the card order. Readers visiting the Print Room can request any card by date and desk number during office hours.
We do not remove published items. Errors are corrected via fix notices; retracted items remain in the index with a retraction label. This policy supports public audit of our editorial record.
Weekend and public holiday schedules follow a reduced wave model: morning file only unless verified urgency requires an evening filing. Holiday schedules are announced on the home page index bar the preceding evening.
Readers who subscribe to desk-specific email summaries receive the same wave content as the public portal — no early access, no exclusive filings. The subscription service covers delivery convenience and archival search, not preferential publication timing.
Close
Reading across waves
The most useful habit is to read morning and evening files together. The morning file tells you what changed overnight; the evening file tells you how the city resolved those changes. Midday updates bridge the gap when agencies revise notices after the morning close.
Context notes appear rarely — only when a standard desk item would mislead without framing. They are capped at three paragraphs and labelled in the index with a distinct marker so readers know the format differs from routine filing.
Read the day in order — morning, midday, evening — and the city makes sense.
35 Kerbau Road, #02-03, Singapore 219168
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