Many Congratulations
This last Saturday, The Chronicle was honored at the annual Society of Professional Journalists banquet at Meydenbauer Center when it was given 20 awards, including seven first-place wins for its coverage of the December floods and other stories from 2007.
Our entire staff was awarded a first-place win for the Wednesday, December 5 edition of the paper, "It came so fast." I remember waking up on the day of the floods to my phone ringing. Living in Olympia, I was safe. But I knew that work was going to get very hard for the next few days as others, who were in the flood zone, were not safe. I was certain our entire staff was ready and prepared.
I wasn't wrong.
I remember getting directions to take a back road into Centralia with I-5 closed. Our original plan was to have me update the paper from home, especially with the looming concern that the office could be flooded. Thankfully Centralia's downtown was all-but spared. Working from home, however, turned into an elusive dream when internet connection into and out of the county was bogged down by broken lines. The only way to get news on the web was to be at the server itself. I knew how important it was for those who still had the Internet to be able to get the latest updates. I managed to get to the office around 1:30 in the afternoon, two and a half hours past deadline.
Our editors were updating the paper's website with up-to-the-minute breaking news coverage and should be commended. I remember, after getting that day's paper online, heading over to the Buzz to find that the community was active in organizing relief effort already and letting everyone know what roads were closed and who was helping victims. For cyberspace, the whole event was quite awe inspiring.
I'm glad to see so many individuals here at The Chronicle awarded for all their hard work. So much of our younger staff was recognized for their creativity. Hopefully we'll see the hard work our dedicated web staff put into the website recognized this time next year! Congratulations, again, to everyone at The Chronicle.
Our entire staff was awarded a first-place win for the Wednesday, December 5 edition of the paper, "It came so fast." I remember waking up on the day of the floods to my phone ringing. Living in Olympia, I was safe. But I knew that work was going to get very hard for the next few days as others, who were in the flood zone, were not safe. I was certain our entire staff was ready and prepared.
I wasn't wrong.
I remember getting directions to take a back road into Centralia with I-5 closed. Our original plan was to have me update the paper from home, especially with the looming concern that the office could be flooded. Thankfully Centralia's downtown was all-but spared. Working from home, however, turned into an elusive dream when internet connection into and out of the county was bogged down by broken lines. The only way to get news on the web was to be at the server itself. I knew how important it was for those who still had the Internet to be able to get the latest updates. I managed to get to the office around 1:30 in the afternoon, two and a half hours past deadline.
Our editors were updating the paper's website with up-to-the-minute breaking news coverage and should be commended. I remember, after getting that day's paper online, heading over to the Buzz to find that the community was active in organizing relief effort already and letting everyone know what roads were closed and who was helping victims. For cyberspace, the whole event was quite awe inspiring.
I'm glad to see so many individuals here at The Chronicle awarded for all their hard work. So much of our younger staff was recognized for their creativity. Hopefully we'll see the hard work our dedicated web staff put into the website recognized this time next year! Congratulations, again, to everyone at The Chronicle.
Labels: around the office, chronline
posted by Rick Pierce at
1:24 PM
1 Comments:
Your coverage of the flood was great. The implementation of the Buzz was a godsend. For those that still had the internet they were either able to help with info on open back roads or it was a help to others so they could get to where they needed to go. The Buzz was and still is amazing.
Post a Comment
<< Home