December 14, 2007 10:21 am
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By M. Scott Carter
Transcript Staff Writer
For the record, it takes huge rolls of paper, some ink and lots and lots of electricity to publish a newspaper.
Sure, paper can be recycled.
And the ink, well, printers have used everything from boiled plants to charcoal to put words on paper.
But that electricity stuff; if you don’t have that, you’re history.
Especially in today’s digital age.
See, electricity and newspapers go together like Merry and Christmas.
Or Desi and Lucy.
Or Gin and Tonic.
You can blame Ben Franklin. He published the country’s first true newspaper and, in addition, discovered electricity. So it was only a matter of time before the two merged.
And once they did, there was no turning back.
And normally, most people don’t connect the two — at least not until this week.
n n n
Around 10 a.m. Monday, The Transcript went dark.
The weekend’s ice storm had coated trees and power lines, collapsing both all across Oklahoma. At one point, more than 600,000 customers statewide were without power.
Including The Norman Transcript.
Monday’s paper, printed around 11:30 p.m. Sunday, was already on the streets with the first stories of the weekend’s ice storm. Those stories were filed by staff members scattered across the county to get information about the storm.
So Monday was a wrap, but Tuesday’s paper was just beginning.
Classified and display ads were still being sold; stories were being developed and photographs taken. No pages had been built.
And while a select few stories and photos were complete, the bulk of Tuesday’s Transcript wasn’t even written yet.
Then the lights went out.
At first, publisher David Stringer wasn’t too concerned. He figured the electricity would be out for a while, then come back on.
By early afternoon, Stringer had gone to Plan B.
“We were waiting for a while to see if it was a temporary or a long-term thing,” Stringer said. “We really didn’t do much for two or three hours. But by about 1 p.m., we had decided we better make alternative plans to get the paper published somewhere else.”
Normally, The Transcript’s 14,000-run is printed on the company’s 8-unit Goss Urbanite offset press. The paper also prints the University of Oklahoma’s Oklahoma Daily newspaper, and other newspapers in Moore, Chickasha and Midwest City.
On any given day, those papers, along with a few others, are all printed on the hulking metal monster which occupies The Transcript’s basement.
But with the power off in most of Cleveland County — and a good portion of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area — the Goss Urbanite sat silent.
So Stringer began searching for an alternative printing site.
His original backup plan, to print in Shawnee, at the Shawnee News-Star, fell through because Shawnee was dealing with its own storm-caused electrical problems.
Norman’s publisher needed a medium-sized offset press, capable of printing a full-color, suburban daily newspaper.
Finding such a press isn’t like going to the convenience store for some new batteries; fact is, there aren’t that many 8-unit Goss Urbanite offset presses just sitting around.
n n n
Help arrived from Edmond.
A few strategic telephone calls and arrangements were made to have The Transcript printed at its sister-paper, the Edmond Sun. At Edmond, the staff juggled schedules and made computer equipment, and the paper’s printing facility, available to staff members from The Transcript.
With a printing location secured, Transcript employees quickly moved into crisis mode. Deadlines were changed to accommodate transportation and other issues and managers made use of old and new technology to get advertising, stories and photographs ready for publication.
At least three times Tuesday, Transcript Advertising Director Saundra Morris found herself in her car with a laptop and cell phone, stationed at the parking lot of Norman’s Panera Bread.
And she wasn’t buying something to eat.
“I went there to use their wireless Internet,” she confessed. “But the building was full, so I sat in the parking lot.”
Morris needed a way to send advertising and information to Edmond and other company newspapers.
She quickly discovered that she had to face east if she wanted to access Panera’s wireless network. “I spent a lot of time juggling parking spots so we could send data and advertising back and forth.”
Most of the time, the process worked fine.
“But I did get more than my share of weird looks,” she said. “I was in the parking lot, in the same place for a long time.”
When she couldn’t transmit, Morris and her staff used an older, less thought of method: Sneaker net. “We burned ads on a compact disk, put them in a car and drove them where they needed to be.”
That network worked, too.
n n n
While it won’t be featured in Architectural Digest anytime soon, The Transcript newsroom is normally a busy, cluttered, but fun, place to work.
A huge open area, with dark and pale blue walls, the newsroom sits on the second floor of the Transcript building at 215 E. Comanche St. It’s filled with stacks of paper, computers, desks, telephones and the occasional basket of goodies consumed by newsroom staff members.
Monday and Tuesday the newsroom was a dark, cold and empty place.
Huge electrical cables snaked across the floor and down the stairs. Spot lights made the room look more like a crime scene than an information center. Portable equipment was wedged next to desks.
Below, the hum of a huge, diesel-powered generator and the heavy, industrial smell of diesel fuel reminded those few still in the building that this staff was managing a crisis.
People were scarce.
And everything in the newsroom was dark — Monday it stayed that way.
Because the paper’s entire news operation is computer-based, editorial staffers needed power, desks and a warm place — at least temporarily — to call home.
To make matters worse, managing editor Andy Rieger’s home — originally planned as the backup newsroom — was also without power. So Rieger moved the paper’s news operation to a different location.
Norman Regional Hospital.
Normally the subject of news stories, Norman Regional — along with its entire public relations staff — became participants in the news gathering process. Public Relations Manager Brenda Finkle and her staff provided office space, electricity, wireless Internet access and even coffee to several of The Transcript’s homeless journalists.
Gathered around a large conference table, staff members used laptops and flash drives — small, hand-held storage drives which can be plugged into a computer — to write and edit stories.
“The staff at Norman Regional was wonderful,” Rieger said. “They bent over backward for us.”
Once the stories were written and edited, Rieger posted them to The Transcript’s Web site. “That worked out well,” he said. “We were able to keep our Web site updated and use it to help produce the newspaper.”
After the stories were posted, Rieger dispatched city editor Linda Henley, news editor Christian Potts, sports editor Clay Horning and sports writer Scott Moore to Edmond where they took a backup CD with the paper’s templates, type fonts and other elements that normally would be accessible in-house in Norman.
Stories and photos were taken either from The Transcript’s Web site or several CDs and flash drives. Starting nearly from scratch, they constructed Tuesday’s newspaper pages.
“When we walked in the door there about 5 p.m., I wasn’t even sure if a lot of what we had on the CDs would work with what Edmond’s setup was,” Potts said. “It was a little rough there for a while, but we were able to get things done in a good way.”
Five-and-a-half hours after the group arrived, the pages were complete, printing plates were made and, late Monday evening, The Transcript was rolling off the presses at the Edmond Sun.
But the paper still had to be delivered.
n n n
Once printed, the 14,000-plus copies of Tuesday’s Transcript were shipped back to Norman.
Battling ice, freezing temperatures and downed power lines, the newspaper’s circulation staff then completed the process which had begun so many hours before.
Maurice Barcomb’s 45 newspaper carriers scattered throughout Cleveland County to hand deliver Tuesday’s newspaper.
“What happened was what always does,” Barcomb said. “The carriers came in there, they got their inserts, their paper, put them together, they bagged them, and they went out and delivered ’em.”
A task complicated by frozen, icy roads, fallen trees and downed powerlines.
“We have 69 routes and 16 of those are rural,” Barcomb said. “And some of those areas don’t seem to get any sun at all; once the ice got there it stayed.”
Even with the ice, Barcomb said 96 percent of The Transcript’s subscribers received their paper Tuesday morning.
“They fought downed power lines, ice and branches in the roads that hadn’t been cleared yet. They battled a lot to get the paper delivered,” he said. “These carriers have done a really terrific job.”
n n n
For some, it was their only source of information.
But come Tuesday morning, just like it has for more than 100 years, The Norman Transcript was delivered to its subscribers.
Getting it there wasn’t easy.
And it involved more than just the newspaper staff; in this newspaper’s case, it was a community effort.
From the publishers who transferred equipment, offered to help, to the staff of the Edmond Sun who made sure the presses kept rolling, the work involved in publishing The Transcript was a true community project.
The staff of Panera Bread — who probably just found out how much they helped — the linemen of OG&E, officials at CNHI, the Edmond Sun and Norman Regional Hospital, all have The Transcript’s thanks.
Technology played its role, too.
Rieger said he’s developed a new appreciation for laptop computers, Web sites and flash drives — three pieces of technology that made Tuesday and Wednesday’s Transcript possible.
“I am now a firm believer,” he said. “We were able to take advantage of new technology to get our paper on the streets.”
That, and the newspaper’s staff, ensured another copy made it to each subscriber’s home.
Staff members in the production department, display and classified departments all worked double time to keep the lights on — literally.
“Many of my staff helped put up lights, string electric cable and do whatever was necessary to help,” Morris said. “They worked very hard.”
The Transcript’s publisher agreed.
“Our staff performed wonderfully,” Stringer said. “Those who weren’t already doing something pitched in where they were needed. It was a great team effort.”
An effort that, it is hoped, won’t have to be repeated anytime soon, but one they will be ready for just in case.
M. Scott Carter366-3545scarter@normantranscript.com
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