By: Dave Astor The Lincoln Journal Star doesn't yet know how much its Web traffic is increasing because of today's "Doonesbury," but the Nebraska newspaper had received more than 40 e-mails by 10 a.m. central time.
In Garry Trudeau's Thursday comic, he gives the URL of a letter to constituents by Rep. Doug Bereuter (R-Neb.). The letter, published by the Journal Star on Aug. 19, was titled, "Going to war in Iraq was a mistake."
Journal Star Online Manager Robert Strabala told E&P that some readers mistook an "f" in the URL for a "t" or "1," and couldn't access Bereuter's piece. So they e-mailed the paper. The Journal Star ended up putting a link to the Aug. 19 letter on its home page at about 9 a.m. central time.
Strabala said the Journal Star would have a better idea tomorrow about how much traffic increased today. He did add that the site -- hosted by TownNews.com, which also has other newspaper clients -- is handling the extra traffic well.
On Monday, The Union Leader's site crashed after being mentioned in "Doonesbury." The Manchester, N.H., newspaper hadn't been given advance warning.
Trudeau is listing a different Web address each day in his Oct. 11-16 strips. The URLs link to pieces offering unexpected criticism of President Bush and his policies. Yesterday, "Doonesbury" readers were sent to Salon.com for an article by Copley News Service columnist Doug Bandow titled "Why conservatives must not vote for Bush." Tuesday, Trudeau published the URL of a Romenesko Misc. page (on Poynter.org) containing the e-mail letter by Wall Street Journal reporter Farnaz Fassihi about how dangerous things are in Iraq. Monday, readers were sent to a support-Kerry commentary piece in The Union Leader by the lifelong Republican son of President Eisenhower.
"Doonesbury" appears in about 1,400 newspapers via Universal Press Syndicate.
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