Press failure not all bad news

Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

We saw both ends of that spectrum unfold over the weekend.

Because of a major electrical problem, this newspaper's press completely failed to function around 8 p.m. Saturday. Every attempt to fix the problem also failed, bringing a newspaper's worst nightmare into vivid focus.

For the first time that anyone could remember - possibly the first in well over a century of publishing - a contingency plan for just such a disaster was put into action. Our friends at the Lewiston Tribune received electronic files of the Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls Press late Saturday night and printed more than 23,000 copies. They shipped them back to Kootenai County but because they were so far behind schedule, many were not delivered until Sunday afternoon.

A specialist flown in from Florida didn't arrive until around midnight Sunday, so the Monday Press was also printed - early - in Lewiston.

First and foremost, we apologize for the inconveniences this circumstance created. Difficulties were compounded because so many people called Sunday morning when their paper wasn't delivered on time, the entire newspaper phone system collapsed. The result was that many of our customers believed their calls were being ignored, when in fact the exact opposite was occurring. We brought in every available employee to man the phone lines Sunday, yet because of the overwhelming volume, thousands of calls still went unanswered.

In the event anything like this ever happens again, we will post bulletins on our websites, cdapressEXTRA.com for print subscribers and cdapress.com for all others, to let them know what's happening. We are also improving our phone system so that collapses like Sunday's should not occur again.

If there's a bright side to the mess, it's this: We're reminded yet again how lucky we are to live and work in North Idaho. Our customers are the greatest. Once they were told what was going on, almost without exception they were completely understanding. Our carriers are the greatest, too. Some of them went door to door, apologizing to customers even though the press malfunction was not at all their fault. And our friends to the south in Lewiston? They were lifesavers. We hope they never encounter the problems we faced on this 9/11 weekend, but if they do, we stand ready to return the immense favor.