Dealing with disaster: Chile's newspapers in the aftermath of the earthquake

Aftermath of the earthquake

Since the quake struck near Santiago's metropolitan area, large cities like Concepción and Talca bore the brunt of the damages. The scale of the earthquake's devastation in those areas inevitably impacted newspaper production and distribution in the immediate aftermath of the quake.

The most affected newspapers were based in Concepción, namely El Sur and Crónica. Both dailies stopped publishing for two days after the quake. Muñoz explained that it was not damage to their offices or buildings that caused them to stop publishing. Instead it was the fact that the newspapers' staff had to stay home and salvage what they could from the rubble. But even after the staff had returned, in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, publishing the news was still a challenge because there "were no basic services" and buildings had crumbled to the ground.

In the battered region of Maule, La Prensa de Curicó sustained the most damages. Muñoz explains that it was "the most dramatic case" for the newsroom was based in a 100-year old house which was "destroyed completely and its newsroom was left under the rubble."

Even with the amount of damage its offices sustained, the newspaper started publishing only four days after the earthquake. Muñoz highlights the spirit of the journalists who "really wanted to rebuild their newspaper," and have now relocated to a newer building and resumed normal operations.

(The two pictures on the left and right show damage to the Prensa de Curicó's offices. The newspaper's driver was in his pickup truck getting the paper ready for delivery when the quake struck at 3:34 AM local time. "The driver was lucky to get out just before the building collapsed over it," Ignacio Muñoz told us in an e-mail.) 

In the city of Chillán, La Discusión, Chile's second oldest newspaper now in its 140th year,  did not distribute its newspaper the day of the earthquake. This was not because its newsroom had fallen to the ground, but because distribution centers were so damaged  that they were unable to distribute the newspaper.

In Talca, El Centro, which was housed in a relatively new building that did not sustain much damage, also had an issue printed for the morning of the earthquake but did not distribute it because of similar problems with distribution.

Though frequent electricity outages were still affecting the region days after the quake, El Centro was able to remarkably produce its newspaper in only 5 hours utilizing a borrowed generator.

However; at almost two weeks after the first earthquake struck the south American nation, "the matter has gone back to normal," Ignacio Muñoz told us in a telephone call.   

Cooperation between newspapers through a possible paper shortage

Although most newspapers have resumed their printing and are now circulating normally in the areas most affected by the quake, the prospect of a paper shortage is now threatening not only newspapers in Chile, but all newspapers in the South American cone.

Muñoz explains that two paper factories that supply the area's newspapers - Norske and Inforsa - were located in Concepción and have "been very affected" by the earthquake.

Chile is one of the world's top paper exporters and those two companies produce the printing paper most regional newspapers need.

The factories have sustained so much damage that they have halted "their operations completely and will only resume in 30 to 40 days."

"The paper supply is very complicated right now."

Although some newspapers have received paper that was stored in warehouses, some smaller newspapers only have paper to keep on printing for 10 days. But, if the factories do not begin production again in the next couple of weeks, "demand will be affected in all of South America."

Muñoz explains that in Brazil, another leading paper maker in the region, orders have been delayed as well, making Brazilian paper orders difficult to deliver as well.

However, Muñoz has seen quite a show of solidarity and "good gestures" between Chilean newspapers. Those newspapers with the largest paper stocks have helped smaller newspapers obtain the paper they need to print their editions. ANP, which represents 50 newspapers and periodicals and 75 magazines in Chile, has been able to coordinate cooperation between large and small newspapers.  

In one case, one of Chile's largest newspapers, which had already secured a large paper delivery from the United States, included other smaller newspapers of the area in its order to supply them with paper through the crisis.

But, what seems to characterize the looming paper shortage is a large degree of uncertainty as to when things will return to normal. Muñoz says newspapers and the ANP have received contradicting estimates from paper markers as to when the plants will be operating again. Muñoz believes it is premature to say that there will be a paper shortage in Chile, but the largest paper companies in Chile have told them they could start operating in 20 to 40 days - enough time for the demand of newspaper printing paper in South America to be affected.

The ANP has been providing information to the newspapers and coordinating cooperation between large and small newspapers.

"Internet is fragile"

Faced with multiple distribution problems in the wake of the destructive earthquake, the newspapers in the region that was battered by the disaster were unable to inform the population through their digital editions.

In the days following the earthquake, Muñoz explains that most local newspapers had their websites up, but were unable to update them because there was no electricity. For some newspapers, servers collapsed with the destructive quake, and newspaper websites were down for most of the time. When it comes to users, few of the quake's survivors were unable to get online to read the news.

"The Internet showed its weakness in cases of catastrophe," Ignacio Muñoz said to the Editors Weblog.

He explains it was "impossible" for people in the most damaged areas to receive information through the Internet. The Internet, he concludes, is a great tool for those who are outside to gather information on what is going on inside the country, but was of little help to those that had their houses fall to the ground.

In the heart of the region affected by the quake, only one or two newspaper websites were still standing after the quake. Few local radio stations were still able to function for their antennae had fallen with the shaking.

Muñoz believes newspapers were the best way to bring information to the areas that were affected by the earthquake. In fact, he says that there were reports of long lines, and even some fights between readers who could not wait to get their hands on the first copies with information on the scale of the disaster when newspapers finally resumed publication and distribution in the area.

Muñoz explains that the fact that the neither TV nor Internet were primary sources of information after the quake is surprising for an area with a high number of Internet users.

In fact, Chile, with a population of 17 million, was ranked number one in number of Internet users in all of Latin America in March of 2009. Over half of Chile's population has access to the Internet.

Unfortunately, the widespread damage the earthquake created caused the metropolitan cities surrounding Santiago to lose connectivity, even when a high number of people have Internet access in the area.

"The Internet showed its great fragility in cases of catastrophe."


Photos:  San Francisco Sentinel , AP, Ignacio Muñoz