Otterblog

We had a transformer blow at our printing plant last night about 8:30. It knocked out power, sent smoke pouring into the place. And it shut down our printing press. As deadline approached and the power wasn’t restored, we moved production to the News & Record. They printed about 10,000 copies. Our power came back on later, so we moved back to our plant around 3 or so. A hairy night, with our night editing crew, our technical staff and production team moving pages and files at a furious pace. It was something to watch and admire.

There are a lot of unspoken rules about putting out a daily paper, but at the top of the list—just after “get it right the first time” —is “we publish no matter what.” In this day of the Internet and Web publishing, you might think putting out the hard copy of the paper is not that big a deal. If there’s a problem, it’s still all online and what’s the harm.

The harm is simple and profound. There’s an unbroken chain of publication, and it speaks to credibility and trust. The sun rises each day, and the newspaper lands on the curb or the porch or somewhere in between. It’s a powerful rhythm that needs to be respected and not bargained away in times of crisis. Unlike a lot of businesses, we can’t just delay production. If you lose an edition, you can never make it up. It’s gone, and years from now, when some kid was using the microfilm at the library, there would be a gap.

We owe the folks at the N&R for last night. They were there when it mattered. This is the pact that newspapers make with each other. Fierce rivals on things that matter—stories, advertising, subscribers. But able to cooperate when a tradition is on the line.