Missed Deadline

 Perhaps the thought of the awful tidings of the Orange’s 22-point loss in the final Big East game against Georgetown was too painful to bear.

Maybe the thought of a 50-degree day in March left the press operators too giddy to go to work.
Was it one pint too many at the St.
Patrick’s Parade?

No. It turns out that when workers at The Post-Standard tried to start the press early Sunday morning, it didn’t. Eventually, they called on engineers in Switzerland—where the press was made—and they spent more than five hours unable to solve the problem. The press finally started running at 7:30 a.m.

That didn’t help distributors accustomed to pick up their papers as early as 2 a.m., so much of Onondaga County woke up to empty mailboxes. In many areas, when The Post-Standard did arrive, it had no first section, the one devoted to the latest news, and no sports section.

Barely a month into the new thrice-weekly home delivery, the Post was not making friends for itself. Thousands of callers jammed the customer service lines that usually handle no more than a few hundred, only to hear a busy signal and then a prerecorded message saying that the paper was delayed and promising complete delivery by the end of the day.

At 9:32 a.m., Syracuse.com reported what most home delivery customers already knew: “The home delivery of The Post-Standard today will be late for many customers.”

At least one home delivery contractor recorded a message on his voicemail telling customers that delivery would be up to seven hours late, and there would be no front page delivered.

The Syracuse New Times was delivered this week on Wednesday, as it has been for most of its more than 40 years, except when the 1998 Labor Day storm delayed publication until Thursday.