The Biggest Deal Never?

Need a fresh example of the perils of print?

OK, probably not, but this one insists on being called out. (Jack Flack thanks "Business Spin" reader Pistol Pete for doing the insisting.)

Stephanie Mehta's freshly delivered cover story on Providence Equity's Bell Canada transaction -- "The Biggest Deal Ever" -- suddenly seemed historical when Andrew Ross Sorkin and Michael de la Merced's broke the news in this morning's NYT that the funding for the massive acquisition was in trouble.

Mehta's story does smartly include a cautionary paragraph.

But don't schedule the victory parade just yet. Just as Providence snagged its prize, the credit markets started to unravel. With the deal slogging through a regulatory review, Providence's partners have had to reassure investors that their newly cautious lenders, folks like Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), Deutsche Bank, and RBS, will honor commitments to finance the huge buyout.

On-line, those warning sentences are now garnished with this update.

(The New York Times reported Monday, after press time, that the Wall Street banks are seeking new loan terms, possibly imperiling the deal).

Fortune also augments the story on-line with a link to Mehta's own follow-up on the NYT scoop.

All of this occurs on a day that is still a week before the May 26th publication date of the Fortune cover.

So what's a print editor to do these days? Well, look for business mag covers to become decreasingly dependent on recent news stories that are still in play. As for reporters, the days of filing a big story and then moving on to the next thing are probably gone.