Douglas K. Ray, Chairman, CEO & Publisher
Dear Valued Subscriber,
As you know, your Daily Herald was not delivered to your home this morning, and I want to apologize for that.
Monday night’s severe storm and its aftermath are at the heart of the problem. Power into the Schaumburg plant where the newspapers are printed was knocked out in late evening just prior to the Daily Herald’s printing window. Emergency systems, another line of defense against power interruptions, also were disabled. All this resulted in a scrambling of the electronics that control the systems. Everything was halted. As of this hour, teams are working to restore the equipment. While we expect the presses to be back on line later today, we are not risking another day of uncertainty.
After emergency meetings last night and today, we have decided to outsource to another printer until the problem is resolved. Thus Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s Daily Herald will be printed this afternoon and tonight with the help of another printer. You will receive both newspapers tomorrow morning.
A year ago, we sold the Schaumburg printing facility to the Chicago Tribune and signed a long-term contract to print the Daily Herald. Several other major newspapers are printed there – among them the Chicago Tribune itself, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times. Some of these publishers found themselves in the same situation as ours Monday night depending upon their placement in the press order. The Daily Herald is near the end of the press run to accommodate the latest news deadlines. That timing coincided with the press outage.
In my 22 years as CEO of the company, there has only been one other time in which we failed to deliver the newspaper on its day of publication. In that case it was a snow storm that paralyzed the area and despite our best efforts, we could not move the newspapers from the printing plant to your homes.
This situation is different. The dependence upon technology in some cases creates its own challenges, as it is doing this time.
I wanted to keep you informed regarding the issues we face. I want you to know that I understand that regardless of the aforementioned, we must fulfill our obligation to you. And we will. The full edition of the Daily Herald is available to you online. It is included with your subscription. I hope you are taking advantage of this option to complement the home delivery. But the print copy is important to so many of us, and I am aware of the impact of its absence Tuesday morning.
Thank you for understanding.
Douglas K. Ray,
Chairman, CEO & Publisher