Milwaukee papers publish free 'Extra' on water crisis p.

By: Editorial Staff

THE EVENING MILWAUKEE Journal and the morning Milwaukee Sentinel combined resources recently to publish and distribute a free midday extra edition warning area residents about contaminated tap water.
Some 30,000 copies of the extra ? printed on bright yellow paper with the headline "Don't Drink the Water" ? were distributed to 900 dealers in Milwaukee County.
An additional 5,000 copies of a Spanish-language extra were distributed in parts of the city with substantial Latino populations.
The idea for a free extra originated in the Journal newsroom.
"We wanted to get the word out to everyone not to drink the water, or to take certain precautions if they were going to use the water," Journal assistant managing editor Barbara Dembski said.
In early April, thousands of Milwaukee-area residents were sickened when the water system was contaminated by a parasite with a name that could have come from a bad science-fiction movie: cryptosporidium.
At a 9:30 a.m. Journal/Sentinel Inc. meeting April 8, the format for the extra was set. The Journal was responsible for the first two pages of the extra in both languages, while the Sentinel handled the third page. Journal/Sentinel's market services department designed the back page, which announced a Water Safety Line in the newspapers' PressLine audiotex service.
By noon, the first copies came off the press, and distribution was completed by 4 p.m.
"We could not have done that unless the two newspapers cooperated. Neither paper could have produced the extra that quickly on its own," said Sentinel editor Keith Spore.
The two papers are owned by Journal/Sentinel but compete editorially.
In the newspapers themselves, bottled drinking water was made available for employee purchase at the company's cost.
Bottled water dispensers and additional beverage vending machines were installed throughout the building.
To get the bottled water from a Plymouth, Wis., supplier, the company drafted its own fleet of circulation trucks to deliver the water, said Mark Thomas, vice president of purchasing for Journal/Sentinel Inc.