By TARA B. DOWD
ASNE Reporter
The unimaginable -- the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 -- could never have been anticipated by The New York Times staff, the newspaper's metropolitan editor said Tuesday.
"There is no event like this, before or again," said Jon Landman, who helped lead a team of Times reporters covering the attacks on the World Trade Center and the devastating aftermath in New York City. On Monday, that series of stories, entitled "A Nation Challenged," won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.
Besides covering the disaster by sending out dozens of reporters, the newspaper decided early on to honor the thousands of victims of the attack by running short feature stories on each one, Landman said during an ASNE panel called "Getting Out the Paper in New York." Also speaking were Charlotte H. Hall, managing editor of Newsday, and Jim Pensiero, vice-president of news operations at The Wall Street Journal.
"I don't think there was anything we could have done differently," Landman said.
The Wall Street Journal newsroom had something much bigger to worry about than covering the tragic events that unfolded across the street."The Journal's offices were destroyed. We were really routed," Pensiero said.
The chaos did not stop Journal executives from putting together a makeshift newsroom in South Brunswick, N.J., to get the newspaper out the next day. The reporters simply kept doing their jobs.
"Ultimately, the only protection is the values and talents of your people," Pensiero said. "The reporters didn't need to be told what to do."
The Journal's coverage of Sept. 11 was awarded a 2001 Pulitzer for Breaking News.
The Long Island-based Newsday had trouble getting into New York City to report the big story because of the 40-mile commute from Melville. However, it managed to publish a 24-page "Extra" that afternoon, within hours of the attacks on the twin towers. Hall, of Newsday, said editors realized later that the staff could not remain dispassionate or objective in reporting the story. Within days of the attacks, Newsday brought in counselors to talk with the staff.
"It was truly unprecedented," Hall said. "This was a very personal thing. Everyone in the newsroom had a connection to someone in the towers."
Even the intra-newsroom competition among desks changed after the tragedy, Hall said. "Every barrier, every wall, went down in the newsroom," she said.
The New York Times and Newsday have stopped printing victims' portraits daily, and editors said the papers are trying to move on.
"We had created a ‘grief beat,' but we stopped running that even though the grief hasn't disappeared," Landman said.
For The Wall Street Journal, moving back into its Manhattan offices from the New Jersey newsroom will be a major step in getting back to normal, Pensiero said.
One audience member asked what the panelists' hardest decision was and none of them could think of anything.
"The whole first week was a blur," Hall said. "The first sign of hope was when the first plane took off from LaGuardia [Airport] for the first time …The newsroom erupted in cheer."
