"Extras" a thing of the past
When 9/11 broke, the paper I was editing in Lawrence, Mass., published a "Special Late Edition" - in essence, an "Extra." Here, we did the same thing during the start of the Iraq war, publishing about 10,000 updated versions of the paper for noon-hour street sales.
It harkened back to the days when papers were "it" when it came to news coverage. Before CNN, before TV, it was not uncommon for newspapers to publish a special off-hours edition when big news broke.
That practice slowed considerably over the years, though there were those rare occasions when we were able to convince our publishers it was worth the expense. Before 9/11, papers I worked for published Extras for the Challenger explosion and the O.J. Simpson verdict.
We'll probably never see that again. Newspaper web sites have become our vehicle for live breaking news. They're more immediate, allow you to present the story in a richer way (words, pictures and video) and don't require the time or expense of firing up the presses and getting the papers in the hands of readers.
Those of us who have been around long enough miss those days. So do many of our readers, who years later still have copies of some of our old Extras.
Comments
Steve, you make a valid point. But please, please fix your website! A website should mirror and enhance the newspaper that it supports. The Sun's website is scatter-shot. The "breaking news" script takes so long to load, most people disable it. Where are the links to the current news happening in each city? And why do some stories allow comments by readers, while others do not? When NOLA was hit by the hurricane two weeks ago, their paper was published as a series of .pdf documents, for free, and posted on-line for those readers who couldn't find a print copy. Would the Sun ever consider doing such a thing? Somehow, I think not.
Posted by: Mike Smith | September 11, 2008 10:32 AM
Thanks Mike. Appreciate the comments on our site. The loading issue is a technical problem throughout our group of papers that we're trying to remedy. Links to the city-by-city news are filed under the NEWS tab on the home page. Essentially they're town blogs. Not all of our communities are represented but we have an aggressive rollout schedule. Your point on comments is a good one, and I'll see if we can't follow through on it (as you probably know by now, I myself am anything but a technical mastermind). The .pdf experiment has been a mixed bag in our business - usage is minimal (unless you've got something like a hurricane working).
Posted by: Steve Lambert | September 11, 2008 10:44 AM
I visit about a dozen newspaper websites each day. All of them have problems, slowness being the most common. Overall, I think the Sun has one of the best sites. It makes my job easier to have tomorrow's news online tonight before midnight!
Posted by: Sharon Gilbert | September 11, 2008 12:37 PM