August 14th, A Tough Day At The Trib

By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

Thursday, Aug. 14th was a tough day.

A tough week was coming to a close. We were publishing one of our glossy covered specials — a six-time-a-year effort with a paper larger than usual. I have to coordinate the impact on just about every Tribune department.

Getting through Wednesday is getting through the toughest part of the process and we got through it with flying colors.

So I breathed a little more easily when I opened up Thursday morning.

Thursday was the second day’s deadlining of last week’s “Best of Queens” special Trib. We print the Trib on two nights to enable us to provide targeted local coverage to different communities. Much of the paper is common for all communities, but our nine different editions allow us to localize and meet differing needs, events and stories. Our approach also offers advertisers a variety of options to effectively use their budgets to target appropriate geographic audiences.

Thursday night we go to press with the three editions of the Western Queens Tribune serving those neighborhoods west of Woodhaven Boulevard.

Thursday is also deadline day for the PRESS of Southeast Queens, complicating everyone’s task a bit, as they tried to focus on the heavy lifting the Trib demanded. But we’d get it done.... we always have.

As a matter of fact, in the 33 plus years we’ve been publishing, I’m told we only missed one deadline. My predecessor, Gary Ackerman relates that a snowstorm once prevented our paper from getting to the printer. Back then in Ack’s day — ancient history — transmitting PDF graphic files to the printer’s FTP site was not a delivery alternative.

Wednesday had gone very smoothly. Our cracker jack editorial team led by Tamara Hartman and our solid art department motivated by our new art director, Cindy Martinez – just completing her first week – had us way ahead of expectation.

Sorry, Melinda

Thursday morning was hectic. Atypically, it was afternoon and I hadn’t checked my e-mail or looked at the mail and the phone rang.

“Melinda Katz is on the phone.”

“Oh shit,” I knew I blew it!

For the second time in my memory, I forgot an appointment. This time it was Melinda Katz, a friend, chair of the Council committee on Land Use and possibly the next speaker of the City Council. I just don’t do these things.

I took the phone call, apologized and was out the door and at Caffe on the Green in under 10 minutes. I had arranged for a drink to be sent to Melinda with my apologizes from the car — I felt terrible.

I found Melinda sitting outside on a step in cell phone conversation with her office. Prepared for the worst — I’m certain that the attractive Councilwoman is never kept waiting — I again offered my apologies.

“Don’t be silly,” she let me off the hook. “You never do this; you must be having a tough day,” was basically her only reaction to my unforgivable faux pas.

She really is wonderful. Not only did she try to make feel that I hadn’t wronged her, she is bright, knowledgeable and as  good a public servant and politician as you find in our borough. She’s good lunch company, too.

My only complaint about the charming Ms. Katz is that she lives “off the record.” She’d rather be her fun self and not be quoted, than her cautious public self.

Melinda, besides my public apology, may I offer some public advice: Your off-the-record reactions are smart, precise and leave you looking pretty darn good. You shoot from the hip as if you come from the Old West. Go on the record, you excel.

As far as excelling, her years of service, her superb understanding of City Hall and the process of government, as well as her almost unique ability to relate to any constituency citywide will elevate her, in her colleagues eyes, as a real contender for speaker.

With no race of her own, she is effectively raising funds to assist other Councilmembers in need — she is second only to Speaker Giff Miller in funds banked this election cycle. She has convinced this old time political observer of her ability to cross this city with Council colleagues dealing with the problems that face each district. She brings to the Council table the same superb gifts that enable Giff Miller to unite the diverse Council, blended with the spirit of the outer boroughs  – a winning combination!

Melinda Katz, if elected, would be the first female speaker in City history. The powerbrokers who sit down to cut the speaker deal will take it all into consideration and at the end of the day — some two years from now — don’t be the least bit surprised to see this daughter of Queens become Madam Speaker of the City.

She has what it takes.  

FOUR O’CLOCK

As four o’clock approached on Thursday, we were wrapping up the night’s work — a tribute to our Trib team and a super effort on the part of everyone especially our newly-initiated art director.

A little earlier on Thursday, we had our air conditioning repaired. For several days, our system had been dragging. After calling our HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) repairman for the past 12 years and being told all was fine, we accepted briefly that the relatively new system was unable to keep up with the high heat and humidity. But after a couple of days of tough work at 75-plus degrees and no return calls from our HVAC regular, we tried someone new.

I never met Mike from Dual-Purpose Corp before, but the company was recommended. He came in the morning on Thursday; went up on the roof; came down and said: “Half your unit is not working — it’s out of freon. I have to conduct a pressure test, find the leak, fix it. I’ll be back later today.”

Now, I was not keeping time by Mike — using repairmen of any kind to track minutes or even days is a reckless custom. But by mid to late afternoon, Mike was back on the roof and not too much later the temperature on the thermostat dropped below 75 and began falling. The office was cooling off as we put the finishing touches on the Western Queens Tribune.

The staff started noticing the temperature change and the air conditioning became a bit of a focal point.

And then it went off — boom, clunk . . . And the lights went out . . . And the rest of the block . . . .

That’ll teach me to use a new air conditioning company.

And the rest of the borough . . . And City. . . And northeast . . . To Detroit . . . To Canada.

And it started to get hot again . . . And the computers weren’t working . . . As a matter of fact nothing was working . . . Except one printing plant in Rockaway, New Jersey where we print the Tribune.

Could we get our baby to press?

The team moved into high gear: assess what was missing; determine what can be picked up electronically at the printing plant from last night’s edition; piece together manually a couple of not-finished pages; stay focused as the temperature inside rose.

The editorial department was split between trying to cover the by-then-named “Blackout of 2003,” and monitoring the final compilation of pages.

The art department was on the phone with pre-press in Rockaway mixing and matching to make sure every ad was in the right place on every page. We were unable to transmit the last few pages in the computer and had to send black and white printouts normally used to mark page position to replace a handful of four-color ads that had not run the previous night.

It was an exercise in communications, math, a bit of puzzle doing, patience and camaraderie, as the office got hot and the daylight started growing dim.

The courier service lost their phone system well before we did — a two-hour battery back up kept us going. Later we relied on sporadically working cell phones. We knew the messenger was dispatched for a six o’clock pick-up at our office, but it was after six.

We couldn’t get a good traffic reading but attributed the lateness to the mess cased by the blackout. We weren’t quite ready for a pick-up anyway.

As most non-essential staff tackled the task of getting home, those who were needed to complete the Trib or get out the PRESS if the lights came back on, stayed. We were close enough to complete the PRESS and make our print window if only we had an hour more of juice.

Well, as you know, the electricity didn’t come back and the PRESS went out a day late. The Trib on the other hand, was finally ready for printing, but needed to make the hundred mile trip to Rockaway, New Jersey with no messenger in sight.

While news editor Steve McGuire went to cover reactions at the local bar, Tamara and I remained in the office. Reporters were coming and going while covering what was potentially the biggest news night of the year and there was a messenger missing somewhere in the falling darkness.

By 8:30 p.m., I was trying to work the cell phone while seeking relief in my air conditioned car and chatting through the window with Steve who was ambling back from the bar and Tamara who had come outside for relief.

A motorcycle zooms into the Trib parking lot. Alex, the regular messenger, who normally drives messenger-like vehicles, had returned home upon seeing the traffic mess to exchange four wheels for two. The Trib was shortly on the way and the worst of the blackout behind us.

That’s’ how it seemed to go with just about everyone in our borough and city. Hardened by 9/11, brave New Yorkers took the night (or a little bit more) as a minor inconvenience. With good spirits, people throughout metro New York shared food, rides and good will. People directed traffic, helped each other and showed that tough New York is graced with deeply-rooted humanity.

The people of Queens went on without incident.

The Trib’s “Best of Queens” went to press and hit the streets.

Thursday, Aug. 14th was a tough day...but it was a good day too.