News guys get busy

Last updated on August 5th, 2017 at 03:54 pm

Howard Owens, director of digital publishing for GateHouse Media, describes the rush to get news out online following the Greensburg tornado:

After talking to my own staff, I tracked down the name and number of our editor in Pratt. We had never talked before. He said they had staff already working on the story, but they were not set up to file stories remotely … Also, the Greensburg office was destroyed and because of that, nobody had login information for the web site. This last bit of news confirmed that we needed to switch them over to Zope4Media right away …

We got busy getting the templates ready, the DNS switched over, and writing what stories we could.

KiowaCountySignal.com is now live. The only stories are the five we produced today. If you go to any other section besides news, you’ll find we’re firing blanks. We haven’t switched over classifieds yet, or anything else on the site. We don’t even have the weather feed working yet (kind of ironic, isn’t it?). The coverage will not be mistaken for Pulitzer entries, but at least it provides some useful information for area residents.

And more to come. Great work.

1. I just went to the link. He’s wrong about one thing. The Kiowa County Signal carries on in the very highest tradition of journalism, and this is what Joseph Pulitzer intended his Prize for.

   Posted by ErnieG on 2007 05 06 at 11:25 AM • permalink

1. Tip of the old Stetson or Akubra to ‘em.  Like the Times-Picayune during Katrina.  William Allen White would be proud.

   Posted by Carl H on 2007 05 06 at 11:31 AM • permalink

1. Nice comments. And thanks for the notice, Tim.

   Posted by Howard Owens on 2007 05 06 at 12:36 PM • permalink

1. Rapid recognition of a needed service and fast problem solving. You cant legislate that, nor design a federal department to over see it.

   Well done, sirs.

   Posted by Grimmy on 2007 05 06 at 12:57 PM • permalink

1. This is how people get through disasters.  They just get busy and solve problems.

   Unless, of course, there’s a government program designed to solve problems, and people sit on their arses, waiting for the government to help.  Feckless fools, they.

   Great work!

   Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 05 06 at 12:59 PM • permalink

1. Congrats Howard and the news guys at the Signal. Bravo!

   Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 05 06 at 03:23 PM • permalink

1. I’m reminded of The Wall Street Journal and it’s efforts in getting both the on-line and print editions out after they had to evacuate their lower Manhattan plant on 9-11. Love that can-do spirit. Well done!

   Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2007 05 06 at 03:24 PM • permalink

1. “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

   Well done, Mr Owens and staff.

   Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2007 05 06 at 10:22 PM • permalink

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