From the professionals: The Washington Post

Newspaper Research Journal, Winter 2003 by Connors, Lisa O'Donnell

It was the beginning of an ordinary day turned extraordinary when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and then in our own backyard, the Pentagon.

Bo Jones, publisher:

It would be impossible to name the special efforts performed throughout the newspaper. Many people stepped forward to take on whatever job was necessary to meet the challenges of an extraordinary day. I thank you all and say how glad I am to be your colleague.

On Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, Hugh Price, director of operations planning for the production department, was at his desk when he received a call from the Springfield plant mailroom.

I got the first call shortly after the first plane hit the World Trade Center from the Springfield plant mailroom...they suggested that circulation might want to increase their order [of single copies]. I called circulation and went into Mike's (Clurman) office to turn on the TV and saw the second plane hit...I ran down to the vice president's meeting and told them and Bo (Jones) what was happening.

The newsroom quickly filled up that morning with reporters and editors. "Many of the editors were in the Newsroom by 9 or 9:30 a.m. in the aftermath of the first attack," said managing editor Steve Coll.

The decision was made quickly at the vice presidents' level about pursing an afternoon extra edition. I was asked to start working on the extra edition about 10 a.m. with the idea that we would close it off the floor three hours later. We basically put the whole paper together in about two hours in terms of the journalism, and another hour for editing, production, headline writing and layout.

Since the newsroom would also be working on the next (Wednesday) morning's newspaper, each major desk appointed an extra edition editor to coordinate work for that issue. "We met, identified stories we could produce (in the limited time frame) assigned the photo desk space and subjects and asked the news art department to help us with some graphics and locator maps," said Coll.

The easiest way to create an instant newspaper was to take the previous A section and simply substitute stories in all the 'holes' (where news stones ran, surrounded by ads) that had been created for the previous newspaper. Don Podesta and I sat down and assigned different stories to different holes depending on how large they were. It was a weird way to make a newspaper...like pouring it in to a mold.

According to executive editor Len Downie, several newsroom staff who were onbook leave and even sick leave came into help with reporting, writing and editing. Photographers went on foot or left cars on the roadside to get to the Pentagon to get photos despite closed bridges to Virginia and tight security at the facility. Jill Dutt, assistant managing editor for business, traveled to Manhattan to help the New York bureau, and several reporters were dispatched to the city.

In the meantime, the circulation and production departments, as well as the College Park and Springfield plants were gearing up to print and deliver the 50,000 copies of the afternoon extra edition, as well as more than 150,000 additional copies of Wednesday's issue. According to Hugh Price, at first the afternoon extra edition was going to be printed at College Park, but as the traffic situation unfolded in the area, circulation realized it would be very difficult to get newspapers to Virginia. The decision was made to have each of the plants print 25,000 copies. "In addition to getting presses ready for the afternoon edition, Springfield also had to make adjustments for Wednesday's issue and print additional copies of the zoned Extras and the Food section," he said. The afternoon edition went on the presses at 2 p.m.

"Everybody just did a remarkable job in a very fluid situation. We didn't know until about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday how many pages were going to be in the morning's newspaper," Price said.

Phil Richardson in makeup was taking this stuff in all day, moving page counts up and down. It was an extremely chaotic day and we were responding to news like everyone else. Rumors were flying, and you never knew what was going to happen next.

On Tuesday afternoon, the circulation department staff and distributors delivered 50,000 copies of the newspaper throughout the Metro area. The special edition was sold out in a matter of hours.

At the Fairfax bureau, reporters and staff went to several stores to try to buy the afternoon extra edition, only to find it sold out. "The extra edition was sensational," commented Steve Fehr, Fairfax bureau editor.

I walked into a 7-Eleven and the man at the counter just looked at me and said, 'I know what you're looking for and we're out of them.' People wanted that issue-they were craving it.

It was the same story on the streets of downtown Washington. The public relations department had issued a press release about the afternoon edition to local television and radio stations and fielded media calls from across the country. Word spread quickly and readers lined up outside The Post to buy a copy, or in many cases, multiple copies. Several staff at the Northwest building, including publisher Bo Jones, as well as vice president / general counsel Mary Ann Werner and her staff, circulation managers and several other vice presidents were selling newspapers on the street outside the Northwest building.