Newspapers go out despite ice storm
Newspaper offices rely on electricity just like everyone else. And like the post office, we report for work regardless of rain or snow, sleet or hail — and that includes ice storms and power failures.
When we began hearing reports of widespread power failures the afternoon of Jan. 4, we hoped power would stay on long enough to get the Marion County Record and Peabody Gazette-Bulletin pages sent to Salina via the Internet.
By 7:30 that night the pages were sent and most Hoch Publishing Company staff members were home with their families, huddled around lanterns and candles.
By Wednesday morning, all of Marion had lost power but Hoch staff members reported for work as usual, knowing the papers had to go out.
Assisted by family members, we huddled over an antiquated gas floor furnace, never removed when central heat was installed 40 years earlier, to insert and mail the Marion and Peabody papers from the Marion paper's front office instead of its normal windowless — now frigid and pitch black — mailroom.
The staff didn't stop there. Armed with company and borrowed laptops, six reporters in three communities continued writing stories about the impact of the blackout until their batteries were exhausted.
Power in Marion was still down, but by mid-afternoon Wednesday power had been restored in Hillsboro.
Employees went to Hillsboro and established a temporary production facility to produce a joint regular edition of the Hillsboro Star-Journal and special extra edition of the Marion County Record and Peabody Gazette-Bulletin,
Two thousand copies of the extra edition were distributed free to box holders in some parts of the county while 2,000 additional copies were offered for newsstand sale.
It's good to work with people we can rely on. Hoch Publishing staff members went above and beyond the call of duty. Reporters made countless phone calls, trips to talk to officials, and took photos to provide coverage of an ever-changing situation.
That reliability is something readers can count on.
That's what a community newspaper does, regardless of the situation or circumstances.
