The Daily Miracle

In the business, we call it “The Daily Miracle” because it seems almost impossibly unlikely to anyone who has been down in the trenches tending to the myriad production challenges encountered each day at a major metropolitan newspaper.

To conceive, write, edit, design and produce a broadsheet book of cohesive, relevant, timely and accurate news content in one day would be a daunting proposition. The people who do it every day need a special combination of dedication and perseverance, usually with mild masochistic streak. Not a job for the well-adjusted, nor for the faint of heart. And believe me, we’re not in it for the money.

The word came down to the troops in early June that the Hearst Corporation had acquired The New Haven Register, The Middletown Press, The (Torrington) Register Citizen and seven community weeklies from Digital First Media.

Within days hurried introductions were being made in New Haven. All sides were tentative and somewhat daunted by the road ahead of us with an already-weary Hearst transition team trying to fit 10 new papers into an alreadyoverwhelming production cycle, and a shell-shocked New Haven Register newsroom staff that would be undergoing their second ownership change in a decade. We had three months. Journalists have to be resourceful and flexible. No obstacle can prevent or delay the production of the daily paper. There was no time for politics and posturing, nor distrust and infighting.

I manage these sorts of transitions on behalf of Hearst. As a Bloomfield native, I have a direct personal interest in these newspapers, and was thrilled to have the opportunity to work for and with these esteemed publications that I grew up reading. And to visit my mom. Hi Mom!

Every aspect of the printed and online editions had to be meticulously analyzed — every story, every photo, every advertisement, every infographic, every typeface, every logo, financial and sports statistics, high school sports scores, the comics, the puzzles, even the American flag icon that appears on the cover of The Dolphin, our weekly publication for the Naval community in Groton. Where does every piece of content come from? How is it planned and processed, and by whom? How does it get into the paper?

And then after the paper is assembled, how and when do we ship them to our various printing facilities such that we can manage the flow of 40% more page traffic than we had previously? How do we get it to feed it into our suite of digital publications? How do we ensure that every last copy is delivered to your door or your corner store?

In the old days — journalists like talking about the old days — we had staff and financial resources that allowed us to pull people out of their regular duties to tend to such a massive undertaking, and we’d be given as much time as we needed to plan and execute at a reasonable pace. Business realities being what they are, such is no longer the case. All of this work had to be done while all involved parties were fully immersed in the daily production of newspapers nationwide and had to be completed as soon as possible.

Did I mention we had only three months?

This past Tuesday you saw the results of our efforts. The new look of the papers was based on an established design that you’ll recognize from Hearst sister papers like The San Francisco Chronicle (my home publication), The San Antonio ExpressNews, The Houston Chronicle and locally, the Connecticut Post and Stamford Advocate. New Haven staff was involved in every step of the redesign and every effort was made to produce the cleanest, most attractive, most useful possible publication while honoring the feel and tradition of The Register.

Did we pull it off? Yes. Are we proud of it? Absolutely. Was it perfect on day one? Of course not.

The beauty of working at a daily newspaper is that you always get another chance to get it right tomorrow. That almost balances the crushing letdown that follows every deadline, when you realize you have not one second to bask in your accomplishment before you have to turn around and start all over again.

There should not be a one-way exchange of ideas

between news media and readership. To work right, it needs to be a conversation. We deeply appreciate the flood of detailed feedback from our readers, even the criticism. Thank you for reading and thank you for caring enough to share your thoughts.

In response to some comments and questions that we saw from a lot of you:

We were happy to see the return of the classic New Haven Register nameplate too.

We were mortified when we realized we omitted the Sudoku puzzle on Tuesday. It won’t happen again!

We had to redesign because the papers were using the proprietary design of one of our direct competitors previously.

The body type is the same size it was last week.

We’re working out some minor size and presentation issues with things like puzzles and sports scores. We want them to be clear and legible and for you to be able to enjoy them. That’s what they’re there for!

We’re still fine-tuning the design. Give us a moment — we’ll get it right. Promise!

Thanks again for reading.