Massive Computer Failure Shuts Down Sunday 'Ventura County Star'

By: Mark Fitzgerald A still-unexplained computer network problem shut down production of the Ventura County (Calif.) Star over the weekend -- forcing the paper to print from the Santa Barbara News-Press, and delaying delivery of Sunday news sections until Monday morning.

"We're still trying to figure out what caused the problem," Star Publisher Tim Gallagher said in a telephone interview. "We spent almost 24 hours working at it, getting experts involved, and finally got it to work (Sunday) afternoon."

The problem began with at 8 p.m. Saturday, about three hours before the A-section news, local news and sports sections were to go to press. The paper said a hardware error "created cascading errors" throughout the paper's computer network, preventing the news and production staff from completing the edition.

Even when some access was regained by 1 a.m. Sunday, Gallagher said, the server that marries advertising and editorial content refused to function.

About 80% of the delivery force, which was sent home early Sunday because there were not papers to deliver, returned Sunday afternoon to deliver pre-printed parts of the Sunday package, including inserts, comics, Parade, and entertainment and business sections.

"At times like this, you say, thank goodness we've got cooperative agreements, so we used the one we have with the Santa Barbara News-Press," Gallagher said. "They were just terrific. They called in people, and really helped us get going."

Web traffic surged to five times normal on Sunday, Gallagher said. The paper's Web staffers set up special links so users could call up PDFs of the pages, and connect to real estate and retail ads.

"It's the collateral damage you really worry about: How would subscribers react? How will advertisers react?" Gallagher said, "And for the most part, you feel like somebody fed all these people happy pills. The sort of anger I expected has been minimal."

Gallagher, who recorded a voice mail explaining the production problem, received 104 voice mails, "and the majority of them were people saying, 'Thank you, Mr. Gallagher, or Tim, for explaining what's going on.'"

Star salespeople were calling advertisers Monday to offer alternatives, he added. "Everything from make-goods to discounts to anything we can think of to make them happy."

Copies of the Sunday main news sections were delivered with the Monday paper, which was reduced from two editions to one to allow more time to work on production and delivery.

But Monday brought another problem, Gallagher said. A rain storm, unusual for late May in Southern California, soaked many of the Sunday and Monday papers, forcing delivery crews to attempt delivery one more time.