Saturday, April 16, 2011

Field expediency for Japanese newspapers ...

From Newseum.org:

When the worst earthquake in Japan's history and the subsequent tsunami knocked out all power in the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture, editors at the Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun, the city's daily newspaper, printed news of the disaster the only way they could: by pen and paper.

For six consecutive days after the twin disasters, reporters used flashlights and marker pens to write their stories on poster-size paper and posted the "newspapers" at the entrances of relief centers around the city. Six staff members collected stories, while three spent an hour and a half each day writing the newspapers by hand.

I wonder how many US newspapers, in any sort of emergency, would have the sack and integrity to revert to the posters and broadsides used to distribute news two hundred and more years ago?