Are Florida Newspapers Prepared for 2006 Hurricanes?

By: Mark Fitzgerald NOTE: E&P posted the following story last week, but we're publishing it again with Ernesto approaching Florida, possibly at hurricane strength.
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Until recently, during the two or three decades that turned out to be an unusually quiet period for hurricanes, many Florida newspapers followed a pretty simple plan when it came to approaching storms. "It was just, 'Oh, call Orlando, and they'll print everything you need,'" recalls Kelly Benson, vice president of operations for the Orlando Sentinel.

But that was before Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jeanne stormed ashore in 2004 and made their destructive beelines toward Orlando in the center of the state.

As it happened, just before the start of hurricane season the Sentinel had organized the first joint disaster preparedness meeting of Florida newspapers in May of 2004. "We invited nine, and 12 showed up," recalls Benson.

Chastened by those storms and what followed last year -- and alarmed at forecasts of another dangerous hurricane season -- this year's meeting of the Florida Newspapers Business Continuity Group attracted 18 papers, from Miami in the south to Tallahassee in the Panhandle. These Florida papers know what's at stake: Hurricane Frances, for instance, lashed E.W. Scripps Co.'s Treasure Coast papers twice, smashing down part of the wall of a brand-new production center in St. Lucie, and ripping the roof off an elevated walkway between the production and business offices in Stuart.

Hurricane preparedness has become a serious and increasingly sophisticated business for Florida papers. This year, the group launched a Web site, which lays out in detail what newspapers can and can't offer papers that need help when a hurricane strikes. "As we got into the planning, there was a lot more detail we found we needed, and the amount of paper you had to juggle as you're trying to figure out, 'What can we do for them, or they can do for us?'" Benson says.

The Web site is hosted by the Sentinel, with each newspaper responsible for administering its own production and business content. To speed production, the site also allows papers to send folders of page files rather than separate pages for printing.

In addition to such production parameters as color-positioning capabilities and FTP (file transfer protocol) site log-ins, the Web site also includes emergency contacts at the papers. Phone numbers for local police and disaster authorities are also listed. "You don't want to show up at Orlando with a load of papers, and find out you can't go through," Benson notes.

The Web site also allows the group to share the load when helping a paper hit by disaster. More newspapers than ever will now split up the press run for a crippled paper. "This is something all papers should be looking at," adds Benson, "because it's not just for hurricanes. This can help with any kind of natural disaster."