'Independent' Under Fire

By: Joe Strupp White Mountain Independent publisher Greg Tock didn't let a little thing like Arizona's worst wildfire stop his newspaper from publishing.

On top of avoiding flames and fumes, Tock and his team -- along with all 8,000 residents of Show Low, Ariz. -- were forced to evacuate town late Saturday. The Independent's staff relocated to a small bureau 50 miles away, living out of motel rooms and shelters. Despite these hurdles, the twice-weekly paper managed to put out a regular edition Tuesday, with plans for an even larger paper on Friday.

"No one is getting very much sleep," said Tock, who spoke to E&P from the Independent's Apache County bureau in Springerville, where the paper has been operating since late Saturday night. "We were up and running by 10 a.m. Sunday morning."

Staff members had begun to flee their homes last Thursday, when seven employees were forced to move, said Advertising Director Wiley Acheson. Another 20 had to depart on Saturday when the entire town retreated.

"It was slightly harrowing," Acheson said. "We had to run with a shirt-tail operation." During the evacuation, employees managed to take save half of the paper's computers, one printer, several files, and all previous issues on microfilm. But, Acheson said, they could only bring one copy of each 2002 issue, which had not been archived on microfilm yet.

The newspaper, owned by Kramer Publications, is printed each Tuesday and Friday at Kramer's printing plant in Case Grande. The evacuation and fire did not disrupt printing operations.

Newsgathering, however, was turned upside down by the events, Tock said. Of the paper's 34 employees, only about 15 have been able to report to work, including all eight editorial staff.

Fire coverage has been the main element of the paper's reporting, Tock said. Tuesday's 20-page edition included nine pages of fire stories. "And there is no sign when the fire will end," he said. Tuesday's press run, normally at 8,000 copies, increased to 10,000, Tock said.

He added that the Friday paper, usually 12,000 copies, might be boosted to as many as 20,000. Since all of Show Low's residents have evacuated, the Independent has been distributing copies throughout Springerville, Eagar, and other locations, as well as to members of the media and fire-fighting crews in Show Low. Free copies, meanwhile, have gone to people forced to stay in shelters.

"We've had people doubling up on jobs," said Tock, who would not estimate the additional cost of the relocation. "The ad director and I had to distribute in some areas so the circulation people could get it out in other parts of the county."