Press problems delayed paper delivery
Posted on Sunday, July 6, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/63449/
BENTON COUNTY — A mechanical problem on the press that prints The Benton County Daily Record and the Northwest Edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette delayed delivery of Saturday’s newspaper, according to Daily Record general manager Kent Marts.
The press broke down early Saturday morning. It took press operators more than two hours to get the press going again, causing papers to not get into the carriers’ hands until after daylight. Usually, all papers are delivered by 6 a. m.
“ Like all mechanical systems, things break, ” Marts said. “ In this case, the system that pumps ink to the press stopped working. The press crew at the plant in Lowell tried to fix it, then switched to a backup system that requires a lot of manual effort. ”
By 8: 30 a. m. Saturday, the circulation department had logged nearly 600 phone calls. Circulation managers expected more than 1, 000 calls would be logged.
“ I hate it that we caused our customers inconvenience; however, when that many of them are willing to call asking ‘ Where’s my paper ? ’ that certainly says something about how vital our newspaper is in their lives, ” Marts said.
After finishing printing the paper, the press crew managed to track the problem, press manager Bob Long said. The press was running again by Saturday afternoon.
“ We hope that we’ve fixed it, and it looks like it, ” Long said. “ But who knows. ”