Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1978. State halts; presses still roll

When the Blizzard of 1978 began the afternoon of Monday, Feb. 6, The Providence Journal and its afternoon paper, The Evening Bulletin, became part of the news themselves as the task of putting out a newspaper became so daunting that some New England papers, including The Boston Globe, did not publish for one or more days.

Here, in their own words, are how The Journal and The Evening Bulletin coped:

"Because of the storm emergency, the normal five Rhode Island editions of the Providence Journal have been combined into one edition today," a box on the front page of a special Storm Edition of The Journal said on Tuesday, Feb. 7.

The next day's Journal reported, "The Evening Bulletin published a limited edition of 5,000 papers during yesterday's storm and distributed them free, mainly to persons stranded in emergency and makeshift shelters around the city."

A front-page column in that afternoon's Bulletin said, "If tonight is the first time you've seen the paper this week, you are not alone. We've been publishing, but delivery has been impossible in most parts of the state, even with the helicopters, four-wheel drive vehicles and snowmobiles pressed into the battle."

A front-page notice on Friday, Feb. 10, warned readers:

"The authorized price of this newspaper is 20 cents. It is being sold by the Providence Journal Company and its recognized agents at this price.

"Some people have taken advantage of the current weather disaster to charge prices up to $1.00 a copy."

The weekend after the snow hit, in a special blizzard section in The Sunday Journal, publisher John C.A. Watkins reflected on putting out a paper during the storm of the century:

"There was never any question in our minds that we would publish. We have never suspended publication so long as we have power and equipment, because our people have a tradition of coming to work regardless of conditions."