Like many trade publications, Midstream Business gets buried daily in a landslide of emailed press releases, analyst reports and industry studies. Yes, we still receive a smattering of items via the U.S. Postal Service and a couple of firms, believe it or not, still send fax copies of their announcements.

But email serves as the medium of choice nowadays.

Some of the items that pour in prove compelling and important—very helpful in keeping our staff abreast of what’s happening in the industry. Breaking news goes to MidstreamBusiness.com for immediate posting. Information crafted for broader news stories or trends goes to our weekly Midstream Monitor digital newsletter. Trends and long-term items come to these pages.

Problem is, the usable and noteworthy lie buried amid the mundane and random: the proverbial needle in a haystack. It requires a fair chunk of our time to sort through it all.

How much is there? I wondered about that myself. I decided to keep count on one recent Monday. With coffee at hand, I opened my inbox to find 181 messages awaiting perusal. Sifting through that list killed a half hour.

I received another hundred by lunch and 50 by the end of the day for a total of more than 330. That didn’t count the junk mail offering “best deals on branded watches,” a “lot for less” on pet beds or bargains on seafront property in South America.

Mind you, during earnings season those numbers can go way up.

Firms don’t always make it easy. It’s not rare to have emails with vague subject lines, something like MELLOW MIDSTREAM HAS MADE AN ANNOUNCEMENT. Interested, I investigate further to learn Mellow has donated a generous check to a garden club for a butterfly garden. That’s nice. But does it rise to the level of meaningful trend in the midstream? Sorry.

Some companies feel they will gain editorial attention through repetition. One particular European firm routinely sends three-plus copies of each press release. Sadly, I have yet to find one announcement from that firm that fits our coverage spectrum.

A single press release seldom tells the whole story of a major event. Midstream Business readers find it useful to know a lot more about what what’s going on so I watch for related announcements from other interested parties, wire stories, analyst reports, government studies, etc. Our staff then puts together the real story.

Less-than-flattering news often arrives at odd times so I routinely check my email on Sunday night or late Friday.

Then there are the press releases that were drafted in a foreign tongue and translated into something akin to English. I chuckle at announcements sent by a government agency in an Asian country that refer to “petrochemical workshops” (refineries) and “drilling machines” (drilling rigs). One memorable phrase seen recently came from a bitter opponent of hydraulic fracturing bothered by “fracking towers” (drilling rigs) near his property.

This is a trivia lover’s job. I’ve found nuggets on such items as a study showing Americans keep their homes cleaner than residents of other countries. That’s fun to know even if it doesn’t have much to do with gathering, processing, transportation or storage.

Am I complaining? Not at all.

The more information that flows to us the better. Diverse sources make Midstream Business the clear and compelling read we want it to be. Our goal as we begin a new year remains the same: to be the go-to source of news about energy’s booming midstream.