Despite tornado, Joplin Globe presses roll only hour late

Overlooked in national print and broadcast news coverage following the mammoth deadly tornado that smacked Joplin, Mo., late Sunday afternoon were the stellar efforts by the city’s daily newspaper and its staffers who managed to produce the Monday morning edition that rolled off presses only about an hour late, notes Grumpy Editor.

While the building housing the Joplin Globe came through unscathed, homes of at least 26 Globe employees --- out of 117 --- were heavily damaged or destroyed. 

The Globe is among 86 daily newspapers owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. (CNHI), Birmingham, Ala. 

A story in the Corsicana (Texas) Daily Sun, a sister publication, noted:  “Moments after a deadly tornado slammed into Joplin, Mo., the staff of the local newspaper went to work, taking photos and collecting stories from a community turned into a war zone.”

Joplin Globe publisher Michael Beatty said employees --- including journalists, production crews, pressmen, circulation staff and managers --- began reporting for work minutes after the tornado hit, then remade Monday morning's edition.  Eighty one of 91 carrier contractors showed up to deliver the newspaper, he added.

Beatty said focus of the staffers “was just to get the news out for the people, in print and online, so that they would have the information they needed about where to go and what to do."

Corsicana Daily Sun editor Bob Belcher told Grumpy Editor the Globe has “a very active Facebook and online presence” and that CNHI sent relief crews to assist with coverage.

The Joplin Globe since 2002 has been owned by CNHI which, along with the 86 dailies, also operates 46 non-dailies, specialty publications and four television stations.

Old timers recalled the Globe made national news in 1933 when it obtained a camera left behind by the notorious bank-robbing couple Bonnie and Clyde, following a shoot-out with police.  The developed film produced the famous shots of Bonnie holding Clyde at mock gunpoint and another showing Bonnie’s foot on their car’s fender, pistol in hand and cigar in mouth.