Student papers do not miss issues because nobody cares. They miss them because the decision was "thoughts in the group chat." Kill, hold, or run is a decision. It needs one owner and a clock.
This is not legal advice and not a substitute for your newsroom's handbook. It is the message that gets a verdict on one story.
Close the list at three
Ask for a decision: run in this issue, hold for the next, or kill. That is a response shape with ownership. Run means your name is on the page. Hold means you will refresh the lede. Kill means you stop spending nights on it.
A sufficient reply is one of those words, maybe with a condition. "Run if the quote is on the record by 4." You invited that. You did not invite a seminar on the beat.
Give the facts an editor can use without opening the whole draft: who is named, what you can prove, the one risk you already see, the inch count. If a claim is still a guess, label it. A confident accusation your assistant smoothed over is how you print a problem.
One editor, one clock
Name the person. Not "hey desk." Set an honest deadline that matches send-to-press, and say what you will do when it passes: you will hold, or you will kill. A decorative ASAP is how both of you miss the slot.
Do not staple three stories into one briefing. You will get a yes on the easy one.
If the handbook requires a second reader on a sensitive piece, say that and make this briefing the first yes, not a substitute for the second.
Draft, then you release it
You write the ask with your assistant. You read every name in the brief. You confirm the send. Copy that can land someone in trouble is not auto-sent.
They do not need an account. Email and a link are enough. If they already have RelayLink, you need an accepted contact.
No attachments. The draft stays in the shared folder. The briefing is the verdict ask.
Nicknames stay private unless you share them. Use the name on the masthead.
If they block you, the block is silent. Hold the story on the default you wrote.
When the choice fits in a line, connect your assistant and ask kill, hold, or run before the issue closes itself.