Tornado hits (on) J-R website

Here's an example of why I'm not too worried about the ability of newspapers to compete with the internet. More and more, they're using the internet to get their product to their readers. The way Springfield's State Journal-Register used its website in the wake of last week's tornado is a good example.

For several days, the J-R fronted its website with a frequently updated, blog-like start page carrying announcements of street closures, food distribution sites and other vital information, as well as reader pictures of storm damage. In today's paper, online editor Jason Piscia recalled:

The Web site's coverage of the storm began about three hours after the first tornado hit Sunday night, when an early version of the storm news story planned for the Monday morning newspaper was posted. The site then kept readers updated throughout the night with information that came in too late to meet the Monday morning newspaper's final deadline, including alerts about additional storms passing through the area and information from city officials about the morning commute and early damage estimates.

As the week wore on, the J-R was able to take advantage of the interactivity of the internet to collect and publish storm damage pictures in JPEG format. Piscia said they turned out to be a popular feature:

Web surfers overwhelmingly came to the newspaper's Internet site last week to view photographs of storm damage. Galleries featuring photos taken by State Journal-Register staff members were added to the site all week. The Web site also invited readers to e-mail in their own digital photos. By the end of the week, more than 150 reader photos had been posted.

(I can attest to that. My wife and I, out in Arizona, were among those surfers.) Piscia added:

The Web site recorded more than 600,000 page views Wednesday, the busiest day in sj-r.com's nine-year history. The lowest page-view total of the work week - just under 500,000 - occurred March 13, when most of Springfield was still without electricity.

The daily page views last week were more than three times higher than an average weekday.

The heavy demand maxed out the newspaper's computer system's ability to serve all Web surfers at once, which is why virtually all users experienced some delays when attempting to load pages on sj-r.com early last week.

So the paper went to a stripped-down, blog-like start page that summarized the news and announcements within the website. Said Piscia:

In an attempt to lessen the delays, sj-r.com's staff on Tuesday switched the site's home page to a basic, graphics-free presentation that contained only text links to storm coverage. Pages that contained high-demand items, such as photographs, also were stripped of non-storm-related items so they could load as quickly as possible.

The Web site's regular home page returned Friday afternoon, as Web traffic began to subside.

In short, the Journal-Register was able to offer good service. I don't always act on my good intentions of keeping up with the local news, in fact, and I probably read the J-R more last week than I do when I'm in town.