Two CNHI Texas Dailies Combine Their Post-Ike Editions

By: Joe Strupp The Port Arthur News and The Orange Leader, two Texas dailies owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., are printing combined editions this week in the wake of Hurricane Ike.

In a story on its CNHI News Service Web site, the chain reports that the sister papers, which are still cleaning up from the hurricane that struck this past weekend, began the joint editions on Monday.

"Skeleton crews are circulating the newspapers free to the few people left in those cities, which remain under mandatory evacuation orders," the news service reported, adding that they "published a combined edition Monday and Tuesday, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, said News publisher Roger Underwood."

Another CNHI daily in Texas, The Palestine Herald-Press, printed the editions Monday and Tuesday, while The Huntsville (Texas) Item, also in the chain, "likely will take over printing duties now that its own power has been restored."

"Port Arthur and Orange were close to the center of the hurricane as the massive Category 2 storm crashed over the Texas coast with winds of more than 100 mph early Saturday morning," the report stated. "The storm spanned nearly 600 miles when it made landfall over Galveston. Port Arthur is about 90 miles to the northeast; Orange is about 10 miles beyond that."

The News and Leader, both seven-day newspapers, missed their Sunday editions and instead distributed a combined Sunday/Monday newspaper.

"Port Arthur News editor Roger Cowles weathered the storm in his home, equipped with a generator and a dial-up Internet connection," CNHI reported. "It has since served a base of operations as he reports, shoots photos, updates the Web site and paginates a combined edition of the two newspapers."