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Kentucky papers provide intense 9-11 coverage By Jacinta Feldman Seconds after planes plowed into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers Sept. 11, newsrooms all across America scrambled to get the story. Local news that had been slated for the next day’s papers was brushed aside as the story quickly unfolded, and the realization set in that America was under attack. And Kentucky’s newspapers were no exception. “In some ways it’s almost guilty to talk about a tragedy being an adrenaline rush, but it was,” said Bob Ashley, editor of the Messenger-Inquirer in Owensboro. “It was a day for newspapering.” Regardless of circulation or size, papers across Kentucky aggressively covered the national tragedy in the hours, days and weeks following Sept. 11’s events. The Courier-Journal in Louisville, the state’s largest newspaper, put out an extra edition early that Tuesday afternoon. Small weeklies that usually leave national news to the dailies, cleared off their fronts — at least in part — to make room for what was going on in New York and Washington. Editors said the decision to focus on the events was an easy one to make. John Mura, associate managging editor at The Courier-Journal, said putting out an extra edition about the attack “seemed a natural thing to do.” “It really was one of the biggest stories in the last 50 years,” Mura said. “It really was more of a natural reaction.” The Courier-Journal’s four-page extra edition was on the streets by 1 p.m. The paper sold out of the 40,000 copies it printed, Mura said. The paper plans to reprint the section sometime soon, he said. Much of The Courier-Journal’s following day’s paper was also dedicated to coverage of the disaster. The paper had a 16-page double A section, Mura said. Seventeen of the stories were written by staff members. “We threw our entire staff into it,” he said. In Owensboro, Ashley said his staff decided to focus on their Wednesday paper and localizing the story. It wasn’t difficult to find local stories. People called the newsroom all day long telling him about family and friends who worked at the sites of the attacks. Ashley said his staff wrote eight stories for the next day’s paper. “We didn’t want the local stories to step on, or get in the way of, the the truly horrific national story we had to tell,” he said. Wednesday’s entire front page was filled with stories and photos about the attacks. The information also filled several pages on the inside of the section, and spilled over to a 10-page special section, with no ads. He said at the time there was not a lot of concern about the cost of printing the extra 10 pages with no advertisement. “Frankly, I don’t remember the discussion being more than 45 seconds long,” Ashley said. “We had a belief that the section needed to focus on the news and not be broken up with ads.” In Danville, while Ashley, as well as many other editors of dalies in the state, were scrambling for the next day, John Nelson was trying to produce a paper for that afternoon. The Advocate-Messenger goes to press about 12:15 p.m. each day, so Nelson’s staff was right on deadline as the attacks happened. “We stuck pretty much with wire coverage that day,” Nelson, who is the editor of The Advocate-Messenger, said. “It of course took over our news pages and has for about a week now.” But as soon as Tuesday’s paper was finished, the staff had a meeting to plan for the next day. By the following day his staff had written stories about prayer services, missing family members and long lines at gas stations. Some local stories that usually would have made the front page didn’t even make it in the paper. But, like several other editors, Nelson said that decision was easy. “This was a no-brainer,” he said. Smaller papers were also following the story and localizing their coverage. Randy Patrick, editor of The Jessamine Journal in Nicholasville, said he decided to redo the front page of his newspaper once he heard about the attack. The Jessamine Journal which publishes on Thursdays, was almost done at the time. “At the time I was thinking we would just do one local story on local reaction,” Patrick said. But as the day went one, he realized the story merited more coverage. Patrick bumped some local stories off the front and replaced them with two photos and three stories about the tragedy. “There would be more local interest in this,” he said. Dale Morton, editor of The Sentinel-Echo in London had the same reaction “For us to run a national story that didn’t have a local angle to it, really is a pretty big thing,” he said. The Sentinel-Echo publishes three times a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So the paper was able to get information about the attack in its next edition. They ran an Associated Press story and photo and wrote a local story. The paper’s coverage didn’t end in their next edition. It was three days before another issue even made it on the front page on The Courier-Journal. It was the story about the second artificial heart recipient. It was the following Friday before something unrelated was on the front of the Advocate-Messenger. And even as more and more local stories return to paper’s fronts, the lead continues to be the attack and its aftermath. “It will be ongoing,” Nelson said. The coverage proved that there’s still a place for newspapers in today’s society, Ashley said. “I think it reinforces the fact that there’s still an important role of print journalism,” he said. “We can step back and bring perspective and we can bring people together.”
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