Blizzard 2011 grounds the Tulsa World print edition

[Big Circus]

The macho "we get the paper out no matter what" ethic can suck my ass until the newspaper agrees to pay for any damage my car accrues going to and from work.

This. Possibly getting etting into an accident, injuring yourself and damaging your car, just to say, "Yeah, but Goddamit, WE DID OUR JOBS!!!" foolishness. Especially when half this forking front page is about companies lahying off, consolidating, furloughing, paycuts.

Last year I played the role company man and walked 3/4s of a mile to work in two feet of snow and blizzard-like winds. The city editor and I were the only ones in the newsroom. Nine months later, I was told I was no longer needed.

It doesn't love you back. Not anymore at least.

Me and my buddy from the news desk did that during last year's East Coast snowstorm. I walked a mile to his place, then we walked another half-mile to get to where circulation could pick us up and bring us in. When there was another huge storm a week later, we both stayed in a hotel near the paper (I abandoned my 8 months pregnant wife to do so) so we could work the next day.

He got laid off three months later.

 

[Wonderlic]

Ed Rendell obviously isn't the publisher.

No. He's a sports writer for the Philadelphia Daily News. :-\

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/eagles/20110202_Ed_Rendell__An_Eagles-Steelers_Super_Bowl_would_be_nuts.html

http://blog.pennlive.com/patriotnewssports/2011/02/yo_ed_rendell_now_that_youre_o.html

 

[JRoyal]

I don't mean to sound preachy, but if papers aren't printing when some sort of disaster strikes and people need to know what is going on the most, then maybe it is time for newspapers to go the way of the dodo bird.

Yeah, it sucks to come to work when the roads are dangerous, but when that is the case I remind myself that those are the days that my job actually matters.

I'm a sports guy, so the vast majority of what I write is purely for entertainment, but when I am one of the only people who can get into work, I am more than willing to switch over to general news so that I can get information out: When will the power be back on? When will the roads be safe to drive on? Is there more bad weather coming? Are crews working to fix things?

If newspapers want to claim to be a vital part of a community, they need to honor their word and do some civic journalism when it is needed the most. If there is any way possible to run the presses and get the papers out, that's what needs to be done.

It's that last part that's the catch. There's no way to get the papers out. Downtown is a quagmire of snow right now. I haven't been out now, but everyone is saying the roads are worse today than yesterday because of ice. It would be virtually impossible to get the trucks needed to deliver all the papers downtown to our building.