It was a storm even the most prepared media companies couldn’t totally anticipate. Hurricane Sandy stymied efforts by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal this morning to deliver to Manhattanites who still prefer the ink-on-paper version (assuming customers even had light to read it by), while the storm’s aftermath disrupted many of the major publishing houses.
The storm’s timing, along with road, tunnel and bridge closures, prevented the Times from getting into Manhattan from its College Point, N.Y., plant, although deliveries were made to parts of Long Island, Queens and Brooklyn.
The Times gets about one-third of its circulation from New York state, or some 236,842 copies.
“We are making every effort to distribute as transportation issues improve,” a spokeswoman said.
There was no home delivery of the Journal in Manhattan and only a limited number of single copies made it to newsstands, a rep there said.
Those with Internet access could still get information online from the Times as well as The Wall Street Journal, which lowered their paywalls today for the second day in a row so readers could get storm and recovery information. A Journal rep said WSJ.com would be free again on Wednesday.
The storm has had varying effects on other publishing houses, which remained closed or advised employees to work from home for the second day in a row today.
Dennis Publishing's The Week had to set up shop in a conference room at a Residence Inn across the street from its offices in order to meet its Wednesday press deadline. "Our entire edit team had to hand-carry their computers and servers down five flights of stairs," president Steven Kotok emailed. "We rebuilt the servers in the hotel conference room."
The New York Daily News lobby was underwater and in the dark as flood waters and power outages swept through the city.
Condé Nast was closed again Tuesday, with plans to reopen Wednesday. Hearst Tower was open for its magazine employees needing access, but its cafe, fitness center and wellness center were closed and the company advised employees to work from home.
On the city’s West side, the IAC building, home to Newsweek and The Daily Beast, was closed Monday and Tuesday because it lies in the flood zone.
Others were able to take precautions to avoid disruptions to their operations. In anticipation of the storm, Entertainment Weekly closed its issue on Sunday, a day early.
-With Emma Bazilian contributing
