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ARKANSAS
Ark a nsa s
PRESS
Publisher Weekly
ASSOCIATION
Serving Press and State Since 1873
Vol. 14 | No. 6 | Thursday, February 7, 2019
Resilient Times-News staff produces newspaper after fire destroys office Dispirited, worried and without desks, computers, cameras, notebooks or ink pens, the staff of the McGehee-Dermott Times-News thought for a second about not publishing this week as a fire ravaged their downtown McGehee offices overnight Friday.
The banner headline of the Feb. 6 edition: “Still Standing! Fire destroys building, but not the Times-News”.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Freeze says she was awakened by a call from the McGehee
Only for a second though, stressed Rachel Denton Freeze, the newspaper’s editor and publisher.
Some bound volumes of newspapers dating back to the 1920s may be able to be saved, but many were also lost in the fire, Freeze said.
“I guess Friday night when we were standing in the middle of the street watching the fire department put out the fire, there was about a second when we thought this week’s paper wouldn’t be possible,” she said. “But there wasn’t a minute when we didn’t think we could. … I don’t think the Times has ever missed a week of publishing and we didn’t want it to be the first. Our main goal was to get a paper on the streets this week, and I cannot tell you how relieved we are.” The newspaper borrowed computers, software, power cords and “everything you can think of,” Freeze said. With a makeshift newspaper office in Freeze’s kitchen and dining room, they set out to put together a newspaper where their own news was the lead story.
smoke coming from the building and alerted the fire department. According to the newspaper, when firefighters arrived most of the interior of the building was already destroyed and a small fire was still burning inside. Most of the furniture and equipment in the interior of the newspaper office was destroyed.
“Those are things you can’t replace,” she said. “It’s easy to buy a new printer. It’s not easy to replace a copy of the newspaper from 1930.”
Fire Department at about 12:30 a.m. Saturday. The newspaper’s own report of the incident stated that a Desha County sheriff’s deputy out on patrol noticed
The rebuild of a newspaper practically started before the fire was out, though, Freeze said, as first responders and community members expressed their support. She credited the McGehee and Dermott communities as being honorary editors for the latest edition. Community members helped supply equipment and resources needed for production. Freeze received additional, needed support from the Advance Monticellonian and publisher Tom White, Continued on Page 2