Follow-ups
Questions earlier stories left open: how the paper files them, comes back with “What happened next” stories, and marks them answered. Snooze, dismiss and edit them.
Some stories leave things open: a deal in negotiation, a renewal under discussion, a customer who raised concerns on a call. Follow-ups keeps those open questions and makes sure the paper comes back to them.
How questions get filed
- By the paper. After each published issue, stories about unsettled things become a dated question, for example “Harbor Freightworks: did the deal close?” due in two weeks, with the company it’s about. The paper never files the same question twice: if one is already open for the same company and the same thing (or with similar wording), it skips it.
- By you. Add any question with the companies, people or deals it’s about. We suggest those names from your question; add or remove them as chips. The paper matches them against later news.
- Your first paper. A preview never adds to the ledger. Instead, onboarding shows the questions it would file (“Questions we’ll keep asking”); your first live paper files its own.
What happens on the due date
From its due date, a question shapes the next paper: news about the same names gets priority, and the best story about them runs as a FOLLOW-UP (“What happened next”), with a line linking back to the original story: Earlier: <headline> (date). The story is written from that day’s records like any other: quotes are verbatim and numbers come from your sources. If there’s no news, there’s no story; the paper never speculates.
When a question counts as answered
Mentioning the company again isn’t an answer. A question is marked answered only when a later story reports the outcome it asks about: a win or a loss answers “did the deal close?”, a churn or an expansion answers “did they stay?”. For questions you added, the story must be about the same names and address what you asked. With AI models on, a checker confirms it and points at the sentence that answers it. The ledger links to that story. A story that only returns to the subject is noted (“came up again”) and the question stays open.
Managing questions
Open a question to see its original story, edit the wording, names or due date, snooze it (1 day, 1 week or until a date), mark it answered with the story that answered it, or dismiss it with a reason. Select several to snooze, dismiss or reopen them together. Questions nobody answered expire three weeks after they were due; reopen any of them to keep asking. All dates follow your paper’s time zone.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Open | Filed and waiting for its due date. |
| Due | Its due date has come: the next paper looks for what happened next. |
| Snoozed | Put off until a date you picked; it becomes due again then. |
| Answered | A story reported the outcome (or an editor marked it), with a link to that story. |
| Dismissed | No longer worth asking, with the reason you gave. |
| Expired | Three weeks past due with no answer. Reopen it to keep asking. |
The weekly Publisher report lists the questions due that week.