ANADARKO, Okla. — A weekend fire that destroyed the building that housed The Anadarko Daily News didn't stop the newspaper from publishing on Monday.
The Saturday morning fire that began in a bar next door to the newspaper in southwest Oklahoma destroyed, among other things, a 1962 printing press and 60 rolls of newsprint weighing 1,000 pounds each. The newspaper is being laid out in a nearby art gallery and printed at the El Reno Tribune,said Daily News publisher and editor Carolyn McBride.
"People said we lost the newspaper," McBride said as the rest of the newspaper's 14 employees scurried around, working to make their deadline. "We said, 'No, we're just around the corner.' We lost our building. We didn't lose our newspaper, because the newspaper is in our spirit."
A courier headed out the door toward El Reno at about 2:40 p.m. CDT with the paste-up of Monday's edition of the Daily News and the printed copies were expected to arrive back in Anadarko about 6 p.m.
McBride, who runs the 4,200-circulation newspaper with her husband, Joe, said the Daily News dates back to April 15, 1901. Joe McBride's family bought the newspaper in 1937 and has owned it since.
The building that housed the newspaper dated from 1906, she said. Anadarko police have said the blaze was reported about 5 a.m. Saturday and destroyed the newspaper office and the Tornado Alley Bar.
The cause of the fire has not been determined.
No injuries were reported.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 08/25/2009