Florida Papers Plan to Print, Despite Frances

By: (AP) Newspapers in cities along Florida's Atlantic coast scrambled to make contingency plans for publishing and distribution as a roaring Hurricane Frances threatened to disrupt business as usual this weekend.

Generators were being readied to power newsrooms and printing presses if electricity is lost and plans were finalized to print newspapers elsewhere if staffs are forced to flee the monster storm.

"They're boarding up the building as we speak," Don Lindley, executive editor of The Daytona Beach News-Journal, said Thursday afternoon. He said the staff planned to work out of the headquarters building unless the storm took a turn north toward the area.

If that happens, staffers will work out of hotel rooms already reserved in the Tampa area and the paper can be printed by another Florida newspaper through a cooperative agreement, Lindley said. Friday deadlines for Saturday's edition have already been moved up so the paper can go to press earlier.

Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers, whose communities were expecting a near direct hit from Frances, already decided to suspend home delivery on Saturday and Sunday in favor of an abbreviated edition available on the streets and in hurricane shelters, Editor Mark Tomasik said.

The group has daily editions in Stuart, Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce and Vero Beach. If they can't produce and print at any of their plants in the area, a sister paper, the Naples Daily News, can also help out, Tomasik said.

Besides planning for the worst, staffers were being encouraged to take care of their own, he said.

"What we told folks is to take care of their families and properties first and foremost," Tomasik said. "If it makes it impossible for them to work, no problem."

Palm Beach Post Editor Edward Sears said the times for the arrival of Frances keep changing, which requires that publishing plans keep changing. The staff likely will stay and work out of the West Palm Beach office, although the paper can be produced at bureau offices in Martin County and Delray Beach if necessary.

"I am confident we will publish something on (Saturday and Sunday)," he said. "I'm not as confident when we will deliver it or how wide the distribution will be."

Terry Eberle, executive editor at Florida Today, said the paper's Melbourne office is shuttered and equipped with generators, so the staff is preparing to ride out the storm there. Moving operations to the newspaper's offices at either the north or south ends of the county also is a possibility.

He said the newspaper is staggering shifts to give staffers a chance to prepare their homes and families for the storm. Their families are also being invited to the newspaper office for the duration, which is the case at some of the other papers, too. Reporters and photographers will also be stationed at evacuation shelters around the county.

"This one you have to take pretty seriously," Eberle said. "I know we're ready, and we know the readers want the paper. They want to document what happened. Our Web traffic is soaring."

At the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Managing Editor Sharon Rosenhause said generators should make it possible to work at the paper's Fort Lauderdale headquarters and its other area offices. Another plan calls for moving a production crew to operate out of the printing plant in Deerfield Beach.

For safety reasons, reporters and photographers covering the hurricane are being sent out in teams of two with instructions: "No heroics, no risks, be careful," Rosenhause said.

Orlando Sentinel Editor Charlotte Hall said the paper's executives have been meeting for the past several days to develop storm-coverage plans. Generators stand ready if power is lost. In a worst-case scenario, the Sentinel would produce a smaller edition if necessary and possibly print at another newspaper.

Many staffers will come to work Friday with plans to spend the night.

"We published through Charley without interruption despite all the electrical outages, and we will do that again," Hall said. "We feel that at the time of a major storm like this, this is when we provide the greatest public service to our readers."

Pat Yack, editor of The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, said the newspaper has been planning for the worst, no matter what the latest forecast say.

"Our challenge, as it is for a lot of other people, is the unpredictability of these storms," Yack said. "Our plans are still to anticipate a big storm coming our way until it's really apparent it's not. That's what makes planning difficult."

Plans have been developed for staffers to put out the paper from remote locations if necessary, most likely at the Times-Union's sister paper in Savannah, Ga., he said.