Ten weeks after it was forced out of its building by floodwaters encircling its downtown production site, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune is back at work printing papers, but still searching for the predictability it enjoyed before Hurricane Katrina struck.

“There was a lot of emotion leaving this building,” said Ray Maly, The Time-Picayune’s vice president of production, remembering Aug. 30, the day the newspaper’s employees fled the paper’s Howard Avenue plant.

Floodwaters surround The Times-Picayune plant in downtown New Orleans eight days after Hurricane Katrina.
Photo: Ray Maly

“It’s the first time we ever had to do this,” said Maly, a 16-year veteran of the paper. “No matter what type of storm we had (before Katrina) we always published. But this was an emotional and sad experience for employees. We had no choice; we had to get right out,” he said.

Bouncing around

For the next several weeks, even as The Times-Picayune’s production staff bounced from Baton Rouge, La., to Houma, La., and then to Mobile, Ala., in their successful quest to again print and distribute the paper, Maly wondered about the fate of the downtown plant and the Goss International Corp. Headliner Offset presses anchoring the site.

Early indications were promising. On Sept. 7, after navigating their way to the building in a Times-Picayune transportation department truck, Maly, a few other department heads and insurance company representatives were able to venture inside the plant.

“The water came to the top step, but there was no water in the facility,” he said. “We were really lucky. When we evacuated, we had no way of knowing if water would come in.”  

In fact, outside of the dankness associated with a building that had lacked electricity and air-conditioning for eight days, the plant was in remarkably good shape, Maly said.

Prepared for worst

“We were surrounded by water and we were prepared for the worst,” Maly said in an early November interview with Newspapers & Technology, adding that the paper had retained contractors in the event immediate remediation was necessary. “But when we walked into the building, it was dry.

“Our two transformers outside the property were about half-way under water, but they were properly sealed,” he said.

A little more than a week later, on Sept. 16, The Times-Picayune earned a second piece of luck. Entergy, the utility that provides electricity to New Orleans, was able to restore service to one of the substations serving the production plant, a development that utility officials initially said might not happen for months.

Ready to go

By Oct. 10, following installation of a chlorine dioxide water treatment system and the completion of clean-up activities at the plant, Maly and his production team were ready to produce the first downtown-printed edition of The Times-Picayune since the Aug. 30 evacuation.

“Everything we checked out (previously) ran,” Maly said. “There was some moisture in parts and panels that had to be dried out, but when we started Oct. 10 we had minimal problems, and although we may have to replace a part or component,” production has proceeded without any major disruptions, he said.

One week later, on Oct. 17, Entergy was able to restore a second electrical substation, providing The Times-Picayune with backup power.

“If we had lost (the original substation before the second one was restored) we would have been in trouble,” Maly said, adding that the paper had plans to once again print at the Mobile Register had power been disrupted.

“Entergy did a remarkable job getting both of these substations up and running,” he said.

New reality

Reflecting a city whose primary goal is now economic - as well as psychological - recovery, The Times-Picayune has firmly embraced its new role.

As companies - new and old - try to regain market share and rekindle the local economy, the paper has become an even more important provider of news and information.

“Because of Katrina, new businesses are looking for ways to reach (consumers),” Maly said.

Job recruitment is another burgeoning area. To help employers find critically needed employees to staff their retail outlets and service firms, The Times-Picayune launched a weekly employment tab.

Meantime, the paper is back to zoning its editions and relaunched its twice-weekly Picayunes - a group of neighborhood-specific newspapers. It’s also inserting ads and other flyers into the paper as advertising demands grow, Maly said.

Not surprisingly, circulation remains in flux as the city recovers. Maly said he couldn’t comment on how many copies The Times-Picayune is currently printing since the print order changes daily as readers return. Pre-Katrina, the paper had a daily circulation of approximately 250,000 according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Workforce challenge

Even as The Times-Picayune struggled to regain its footing, the paper’s employees had to wrestle with their own significant challenges, Maly said.

Maly declined to say how many production employees were able to return to the paper, but said the storm transformed the workforce in myriad ways.

“Everybody who worked here had something happen to them,” said Maly, whose house suffered water and wind damage. “No one here didn’t (suffer) some impact from Katrina. All of us know about the destruction it caused to our own particular lives and that of our relatives.

“It’s like working in a whole new environment. There is a tremendous amount of stress (because of the storm), and people (understandably) are acting a little bit differently.”

Responsibilities change

Still, Maly said the paper’s staff remains focused on producing the best Times-Picayune it can, realizing the key role the paper is playing as New Orleans attempts to recover from the storm.

“We are staffed, but responsibilities have changed,” Maly said. Job sharing is now the norm, with employees shuttling among various departments.

“It depends on where the need is,” he said.

With the advent of the high-dollar, high-volume holiday season, Maly said he expects the paper’s inserts, page volume and distribution to continue growing.

Considering what the paper, and the city, has already gone through, Maly said he’s confident “we can get through it.”