September 11, 2001
Mark your calendar for Mediaweek, October 29-30 in New York City. We’ll unpack the biggest shifts shaping the future of media—from tv to retail media to tech—and how marketers can prep to stay ahead. Register with early-bird rates before sale ends!
By the time this issue of PrintMedia hits desks everywhere, nearly two months will have passed since the tragic events of September 11, 2001 occurred. That mere mention of the date carries weight indicates its grave significance. In the hours that followed the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a plane over Pennsylvania, the country wanted—and needed—information. People everywhere looked to television, radio and the Internet as the events unfolded, but sought out print media in order to gain more insight. Time and Newsweek responded accordingly with special issues that hit newsstands less than two days after the attacks. The issues included photo essays and special reports, but were without advertisements. Time’s production director, Nancy Mynio, oversaw the Herculean production efforts at the magazine. “Within 48 hours of when the event occurred, magazines were on-sale in New York,” states Mynio. “The issue was essentially written and imaged within a 12-hour period of time.”
Focus on the task at hand
For those who gained word of the initial attack shortly before 9:00 a.m., work at once became unthinkable and impossible. Imagine then how difficult the task of producing a special issue must have been, both logistically and emotionally. John Nallen, director of manufacturing for Newsweek, was in Virginia when he heard the news. In just a few hours, the decision was made to produce a special issue and Nallen was in a car headed to the magazine’s production facilities in New Jersey. He describes how he focused on the task at hand: “My thoughts were on both the tragic events and the need to produce the magazine. The entire drive back I was worried about what was going on, but this is the business we’re in. We’ve been in these situations before. You need to respond. This is what we do best. Our job is to inform people. They’re looking to have information.” Obviously, time was of the essence. Whereas Newsweek usually closes in stages Tuesday through Saturday, he says “with the special issue, everything closed at one time.”
In the New York offices at Time, the managing editor and his staff typically have a meeting every morning at ten o’clock to discuss the upcoming issue. A few members of the production team are usually in attendance, as they were the morning of the 11th. “In that meeting, everyone was stunned about what was transpiring a few miles away, but they were also focused on how to go about covering it,” recounts Mynio. “As soon as the decision was made to produce the issue, production went into action. Operations called the printers, makeup started creating mockups.”
After the team set about work on the special issue, the Pentagon was hit by a third hijacked plane and a fourth plane crashed in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Despite the continuing devastation, Mynio says, “We had to stay focused. I think the full impact of the events didn’t catch up with most of us until Sunday or Monday after we produced the special issue and our regular weekly issue. Focusing on our job helped us get through the event, but really just delayed the reaction to it.”
Tight production schedule
To meet anticipated demand, Time printed more than eight million copies of the special issue, including copies for both subscription and newsstand, which is approximately double the number of a normal print run. At press time, an additional one million copies of Newsweek’s special issue were being reprinted. The original run for the special issue was two million copies. For Newsweek to honor newsstand commitments and produce the special issue in a timely fashion, “We used eight additional suppliers just for that issue,” explains Nallen. “Hiring additional suppliers was something we needed to do because we only have so many capabilities in printing and binding to meet the new state of commitments.”
For Mynio and the production team at Time, they produced the special issue without deviating from their normal procedures, other than the fact that they were working within an extremely narrow time frame. “Utilizing an OPI server gives designers the ability to work on layouts while our imaging department can work on color quality. The copy is written and edited simultaneously using OPS,” says Mynio of the process. “In the final stages of page production, the hi-res images, text and page plan are merged through PCC services workflow (ArtFlow). A final DCS2 file is produced for each page, which is proofed and then transmitted via WAM!NET. Rick Prue, our editorial operations director, along with his staff, closely monitored the page flow to be sure that our schedule was met, so having a graphic-intensive book did not create any unique challenges.”
When interviewing Nallen, he had just completed production on a second special issue, “Spirit of America.” With the luxury of a few additional days, the second special issue focused on quality. Enthuses Nallen, “It was produced on high-grade papers and contains high-quality photographs. The heavier cover and body paper adds to the entire presentation of the package. “He pauses and adds for emphasis, “You better believe whatever else happens we will be there with more special issues.”
-Rebecca Churilla
