The GIF above shows how The Times’s treatment of the Orlando shooting evolved as we learned more and discovered the scope of the horror.

“As you can see from the GIF, it went in stages as our reporters on the ground began to understand the immensity of the tragedy,” Ian Fisher, The Times’s weekend editor, said. “The day was directed by Julie Bloom, the weekend deputy who was one of the few people in the newsroom as the story was first breaking. As the initial, sketchy details came in, she published it as a small story in the middle column. Then it became the main story on the site. Then we went to what we call a ‘banner’ headline, which goes above the picture and is usually the largest headline.

“In this case, though, we needed to show more,” Mr. Fisher continued. “We stripped two lines of all-capital text across the entire homepage (moving down the Opinion section). That’s exceedingly rare — it happens once or twice a year at most. And, except for elections, it’s never news you might welcome.”

Steve Kenny, a senior editor on the news desk, had finished his shift an hour before the story broke — and returned to the office to help with the coverage. He explains how Times editors handled the story: