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Our hometown newspaper had some sort of major hiccup this morning.
I like to go to a local breakfast spot on occasion, sit at the counter and read the paper while having an omelet amidst the chaos near the kitchen. It's a lively and bustling environment in a place that's usually packed all morning, but almost always has a space open at the counter. Most of the patrons and waitresses in the counter area seem to know one another, leaving me the interloper who doesn't quite fit into the casual chatter and needs to be asked what I want. I don't mind.
This morning when I went out to start the car, there was no paper out front. Hmm. Sarah might have brought it in and put it somewhere odd, so I came back in and scouted around, finding nothing. I called but my wife was already riding something at Magic Mountain, and not answering.
I noticed that none of my neighbors had a paper in the driveway, which is a bit odd for 8:00 on a Sunday. I set off to find a paper and eat. And struck out everywhere I went (I almost purchased the Saturday paper at my first stop, the clerk kept me from that). I eventually bought the LA Times, spent the obligatory ten minutes fishing out the business and opinion sections from the blizzard of ads and other crap and went to eat.
When I got back, I checked the Star page to see what was up and found this notice:
TO OUR READERS:
The Star experienced a major technical problem Saturday night that prevented us from printing and delivering Sunday's newspaper. We are working on the problem and hope to have a solution soon. We will deliver the paper as soon as possible, hopefully before 5 p.m. today. Some customers may be receiving only partial newspapers this morning. We apologize for the inconvenience to our readers and advertising customers.
Joe R. Howry
Editor
Ventura County Star
Later in the day the announcement changed a bit:
TO OUR READERS:
The Star experienced a major technical problem Saturday night that prevented us from printing and delivering Sunday's newspaper. We are working on the problem and hope to have a solution soon. Unfortunately, we will not be able to deliver the newspaper in its entirety today. We will deliver by approximately 5 p.m. today the Arts & Living, Business, Escapes and Classified sections along with all advertising inserts.
The main, local and sports sections of Sunday's paper will be delivered with Monday's paper. The Sunday Star will not be available at news stands.
We would like to remind readers they can find all of the Sunday Star online at venturacountystar.com, and we will continuously update the website with the latest news throughout the day.
In addition to our printing problems, The Star's phone system has been unable to handle the volume of calls. We apologize for the inconvenience to our readers and advertising customers.
Joe R. Howry
Editor
Ventura County Star
I bet it's been a really fun day at the Star. I'm a bit disappointed though.
They've still got a functioning web site to publish a real ongoing story about their problems and they didn't use it. I was guessing that it might have something to do water main break in Ventura (water is pretty important to the printing process from what I recall) but no word was forthcoming.
Mr. Howry is an advocate of open records for public agencies and has criticized Elton Gallegly in the past for not talking to the Star, positions I certainly support. I'm not convinced he sees his paper in quite the same light, which is odd given its position as a trusted messenger.
Earlier this month the Star was caught in controversy when the Editor & Publisher was first to report a story about ethics violations by Managing Editor Richard Luna. I had hoped they might have learned something from that process.
They really need to sort this problem out and figure out how they're going to communicate information about the paper (and the area they cover) that can't find room in the paper. Heck, there's a dormant weblog by assistant managing editor John Moore that would have been perfect for this kind of story.
Posted by Dave at May 21, 2006 11:39 PM