By Andy Davis
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)
Copyright 2006 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.
The West Memphis Evening Times scrambled to relocate its operations after a fire Sunday morning destroyed its news offices and printing press.
A dozen newspaper employees were working Sunday in the offices of the Germantown News, a weekly newspaper in Tennessee with the same owners as the Evening News, said Nick Coulter, an advertising executive with the Evening Times and nephew of publisher Alex Coulter.
The Evening Times planned to print today’s edition at The Daily News, a business newspaper in Memphis, Nick Coulter said. The newspaper has also rented a 2,000-square-foot building next to the Evening Times where employees will work beginning today.
He said the newspaper is also looking for a more permanent place to continue printing the Evening Times, Germantown News and two other publications that were printed at the building — the weekly Marion Ledger and a shopping guide.
The newspaper business is “kind of a close-knit family when something like this happens,” Coulter said. “A lot of people are really stepping up to the plate and helping us.” Authorities were investigating what caused the fire, which started about 5:30 a.m. and destroyed the one-story, 20,000-square-foot building. Firefighters were still dousing hot spots late Sunday afternoon, a fire department dispatcher said.
The building was constructed in the late 1920s and had since been expanded, Coulter said. It housed about 50 employees, including the Evening Times’ news staff and printing press.
Editor Mike Bowie said the roof collapsed, and all of the newspaper’s property — including its printing press, classified advertising records and computers - was destroyed.
The Evening Times publishes afternoon editions Monday through Friday and has a circulation of about 9,800, Coulter said. It is owned and published by Alex Coulter and Tom Ricketson, he said.
Bowie said an alarm inside the building automatically directed a telephone call to a newspaper employee, Pam Coulter, who lives nearby. He said she got out of bed and went quickly to the building, saw flames through a window, and called the Fire Department.
When firefighters arrived, he said, she unlocked exterior doors for them, and then went in herself in an effort to rescue the paper’s computer server.
“The smoke was too bad, and they made her get back outside,” Bowie said. “I got there about quarter to six, and fire was coming out through the roof by that time already.” According to Bowie, firefighters eventually had to work to keep the flames from spreading to two other nearby buildings, and they succeeded.
He said he had no dollar estimate for the loss, but the building was destroyed. Insurance will cover the loss, Bowie said. “The main thing is, no one was hurt,” he said.
“We’re going to do everything in the world we can” to continue publishing normally, Bowie said.
Information for this article was contributed by The Associated Press.