From the professionals: Orlando Sentinel

Newspaper Research Journal, Winter 2003 by Pynn, Manning

As it does with communities and nations, tragedy brings out the best in journalists. They pull together with a single focus.

That happened last Tuesday with the 9/11 message that collapsed the World Trade Center towers and part of the Pentagon, killing and injuring thousands.

Reporters and editors - many of whom weren't scheduled to arrive until later - started converging on the Sentinel newsroom after a Boeing 767 plowed into the north tower of Manhattan's World Trade Center at 8:45 a.m.

They wanted to contribute in any way they could to help Central Floridians understand what had happened and not have to wait until the following day.

A team began building an eight-page, color extra edition-headline: TERROR - that would hit the streets in mid-afternoon. Anxious readers scooped up all 119,000 copies.

With daily deadlines and finite space in which to report what they discover, journalists learn early to prioritize. They dropped everything and focused on the tragedy that would consume the next day's paper.

Managing editor Elaine Kramer began listing key considerations for the 32 other editors who crowded into the Sentinel's editorial conference room at 1:30 p.m.

As editors called them out, regional editor Lauren Ritchie wrote on an easel pad the names of available writers. Local reporters, state reporters, national reporters, business reporters, feature writers, reporters in regional bureaus - the list kept growing.

Lynn Hoppes from sports stepped in and announced that all sporting events had been canceled, freeing up many on his staff. When completed, the list contained 77 names.

Next they would match the reporters to assignments. Logistics had to be taken into account. Four people were in Washington, two more on their way. Four more were in a van, headed to New York. Reporter Mark Silva was with President Bush in Longboat Key.

Supervisors rushed to put people into motion while editor Tim Franklin assembled a small group to go over what else we should do: provide for an early shift of editors for the morning in case developments warranted another extra edition, begin planning for the following day, launch a parallel effort for the Sunday Sentinel.

Editors reconvened at 6 p.m. to organize the various articles, photographs and illustrations on themed pages. And then the real work began. Associate managing editors Ann Hellmuth, Bob Shaw and Monty Cook directed their key portions of the newsroom like parts of an orchestra.

Associate managing editor Steve Doyle huddled with operations people, who altered press and delivery schedules to accommodate the changes. Dinner was ordered in. Work continued deep into the night.

And in the morning, on lawns and in vending boxes throughout Central Florida, appeared 22 all-news pages-half of them in color-plus the editorial pages, in the first section of the Sentinel alone, with more farther back.

Most of that news was not uplifting, but it reminded me of something John McMullan, an editor for whom I once worked in Miami, said as a hurricane was bearing down on that city.

Commenting on the dedication of journalists who had stayed through the night to publish the newspaper, he said that there are few better assurances that life will go on after a disaster than finding a newspaper on your lawn in the morning.

Tragedies, unfortunately, will continue. Return to normalcy will take some time.

But life will go on. You can read about it here.

Pynn, is the public editor and ombudsman of the Orlando Sentinel. Formerly, he was the Sentinel's editorial page editor and edited a project that was awarded the 2000 Pulitzer Prize. He earlier oversaw the newspaper's national, projects and business news operations. Pynn holds a political science degree from the University of South Florida.