The tabloids will make sure that panic sets in next week. <gg)
ap.tbo.com
Tabloids Scramble to Get Issues Out Amid Anthrax Scare
By Adrian Sainz Associated Press Writer
Published: Oct 8, 2001
MIAMI (AP) - Editors and reporters scrambled Monday to put together next week's editions of The National Enquirer, Globe and Star as investigators scoured the tabloids' headquarters for evidence of anthrax.
The FBI closed American Media Inc.'s office in Boca Raton early Monday after the bacteria was found in the nose of one of the co-workers of Bob Stevens, who died Friday from a rare, inhaled form of anthrax.
Three of American Media's six tabloids, the Enquirer, Globe and Star, were scheduled to go to press Monday, even as more than 100 employees lined up outside a clinic in Delray Beach to be screened for anthrax. The company also publishes the Sun, National Examiner and Weekly World News, but they were not set to go to press Monday.
Editors were split between the company's accounting office in Delray Beach and its office 40 miles south in downtown Miami, laying out pages and arranging copy for issues scheduled to hit the newsstands Oct. 16.
Jim Johnston, a page designer for the Enquirer who worked with Stevens for 25 years, went to the clinic but saw the large crowd outside and left. Instead, he went to the Delray Beach office to lay out page one.
"It's going to be tough but we'll get it out," Johnston said.
At least 100 employees were sent to the Delray Beach office and another 50 will work out of the Miami office, said David Pecker, chief executive of American Media.
"Our papers are still printing and will be put out today from those locations."
The company will search for space to rent for the next few months. Pecker said he didn't know when workers will be allowed back in the building.
He did not believe the company was being targeted by terrorists because of the papers' coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks and Osama bin Laden.
"Our investigating is nothing different than the mainstream (media)," he said.
Stevens, 63, was the first person in 25 years in the United States to die from inhalation anthrax. The bacteria also was found on a computer keyboard used by Stevens, a photo editor for the Sun.
The man with the second case of anthrax was in stable condition Monday at an unidentified Miami-Dade County hospital, according to health officials. The man's identity was not made public, but he was a co-worker at the Sun. A nasal swab from the patient tested positive for anthrax, said Tim O'Conner, regional spokesman for Florida's health department.
AP-ES-10-08-01 1504EDT |
