California Fires Drive Traffic -- And Challenge Coverage

By: Joe Strupp Southern California's firestorm is also creating a news storm of sorts for area newspapers, with the Los Angeles Times putting scores of reporters on the story and the San Diego Union-Tribune -- in the most affected area -- seeing daily record-breaking Web traffic.

Google Maps is even getting into the act with several papers, including the Times, Union-Tribune, and Los Angeles Daily News, utilizing the Web site's map services for updated online fire reporting.

"We have seen many publications in Southern California use our free custom mapping tool?to share information about the fires and evacuation procedures," Google spokeswoman Megan Quinn wrote in an e-mail.

Union-Tribune editors said Google called them offering to host such maps, which are adding to that paper's record Web activity.

"It is absolutely exploding," Chris Jennewein, vice president of Internet Operations for the Union-Tribune, said about his Web traffic. "Monday was far and away our busiest day ever and we expect that to double today."

The Union-Tribune Web site, SignOnSanDiego.com, saw its traffic begin to rise on Sunday when the fires first erupted. Jennewein said the site was up to 150,000 page views per hour by Sunday afternoon, which usually averages 40,000 per hour. By Monday, the rate had hit 475,000 page views per hour, seven times the normal Monday flow.

By midnight Monday, the site had gotten 6.7 million page views, well above the usual 1.2 million for a Monday, he said. Since Monday, Web editors have had to boost capacity four-fold, going from two main servers to eight. "The site has never been down, but it was slow," Jennewein said. "We have gotten some complaints, but mostly people thanking us."

Jennewein said Google officials called Monday to offer up free map service to the site, which is regularly updating a map to show where the fires are at any given time, with specific burned acreage, evacuation, and other information. Jennewein, whose family has been evacuated from their Del Mar home to a local hotel, said half of his 70 staffers are out of their homes, but on the job.

The Web site's new talk radio station, SignOn Radio, which launched just two weeks ago, is also seeing increased traffic. Jennewein said the online station, which was initially created to handle 300 online users at a time, has been increased to handle up to 2,000 because of the fire coverage, which has boosted listeners to an average of 1,500 at any moment.

Bill Nagel, Union-Tribune vice president/circulation, said at least 92% of the paper's 220,000 subscribers are receiving the paper each day. He said carriers are going into all areas that have not been evacuated. "Customers have been very understanding," Nagel said.

A phone message greeting callers to the Union-Tribune circulation department states: "The San Diego Union-Tribune is making every effort to ensure delivery of your newspaper during the current fire storm. However, the safety of our customers, carriers and truck drivers is our highest priority. Therefore, delivery may be impacted in some areas."

The Union-Tribune also bumped up its single-copy press run by 30,000 copies for Tuesday, with half of those being distributed at no charge to evacuated and displaced readers. Nagel said the paper is planning to print a special four-page version of its Spanish-language weekly, Enlance, to be distributed today.

About 30,000 free copies of Enlance, which is normally published on Fridays, will be printed. "We have seen a lack of information for Spanish language residents," he said.

Union-Tribune editors have not been reachable for comment, but the Web site has kept up a steady stream of updates and stories about how to deal with related issues such as insurance, evacuations, and school closings

At the Los Angeles Times, Associate Editor Leo Wolinsky, a 30-year veteran of the paper, said this firestorm "is shaping up to be the biggest one" in his time at the paper. "The majority of the metro staff is dedicated to it," he said, noting at least 70 reporters were on the story Monday. "There is a lot going on in a lot of places."

Jack Klunder, senior vice president/circulation for the Times, said there are some isolated areas without access, but found no major delivery problems: "In Malibu, it was about 2,500 papers that were not delivered out of 800,000 [total circulation]. Out on the roads, there are barriers that come up for certain neighborhoods and carriers are being asked to sign waivers to get access to some streets."

Los Angeles Daily News officials could not be reached for comment, but a Page One note in Tuesday's edition from Editor Ron Kaye stated: "Many subscribers did not get Monday's paper because of production problems and road closures. It is being delivered with today's paper. I apologize for the inconvenience."

Farther away, at The New York Times, editors have posted a request on the paper's Web site for fire video footage.

"More than a dozen wildfires continued to rage unstopped in southern California for a third day Tuesday, forcing an estimated 300,000 people to evacuate their homes and blackening over 400 square miles of brushland and suburbs," the notice posted Tuesday said. "Do you have video footage of the California wildfires? You can submit your video for publication on NYTimes.com."