By: Joel Davis Boosted Press Runs Expected Thursday
PORTLAND, Ore. - Despite a powerful earthquake that jolted the Northwest on
Wednesday, the region's largest dailies sustained no known damages.
Although the strongest temblor to hit Washington state in 52 years shut down the
Seattle airport, left hundreds of thousands of people without power, and injured
at least 29 people, The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-
Intelligencer were not affected, Times spokeswoman Kerry Coughlin
said. The magnitude-6.8 quake struck at 10:55 a.m. and was centered 35 miles
southwest of Seattle. The Times and Post-Intelligencer, both
morning papers, were already delivered for the day and there were no extra
editions, Coughlin said, though she noted that press runs for both papers would
be boosted for the Thursday single-copy sales.
The earthquake also swayed downtown office buildings in Portland, Ore., where
The Oregonian, Oregon's largest daily, replated its single-copy Street
Final with a large headline reading, "EARTHQUAKE ROCKS NORTHWEST."
Oregonian Executive Editor Peter Bhatia said remaking the front page
caused about a half-hour delay in getting the paper out. He said the Thursday
Oregonian would likely print extra single-copy editions to meet reader
interest in the quake, which, judging by the number of pedestrians pumping
change into news racks on Wednesday, appeared high.
The (Tacoma, Wash.) News-Tribune and The Olympian in
Olympian, Wash., are reportedly the dailies closest to the quake's epicenter,
and could not be reached Wednesday afternoon because of jammed phone lines.
While it was not known if there was any damage or injuries at either
publication, the papers' Web sites, (www.tribnet.com) and
(news.theolympian.com), were up to date and did not report any internal
problems.
Joel Davis (jdavis@editorandpublisher.com) is West Coast editor for E&P.
Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.
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