The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and other titles belonging to Tribune Publishing suffered major printing and delivery disruptions on December 29 following a cyberattack.
The attack led to delayed distribution of the publications.
Tribune Publishing said it first detected the malware on December 28, which
hit papers sharing the same printing plant.
The attack is believed to have come from outside the US, the LA Times said.
West Coast editions of the Wall Street
Journal and The New York Times,
which share the same production platform in Los Angeles, were also affected.
“We believe the intention of the
attack was to disable infrastructure, more specifically servers, as opposed to
looking to steal information,” an anonymous source with knowledge of
the attack told the LA Times.
Marisa Kollias, Tribune Publishing spokeswoman, confirmed this in a
statement, saying the virus hurt back-office systems used to publish and
produce “newspapers across our properties”.
“Every market across the company
was impacted,” she said, refusing to give more specifications on the
disruptions, according to the LA Times.
Other publications owned by the company include the New York Daily News, Orlando
Sentinel and the Annapolis
Capital-Gazette, whose staff were the targets of a deadly shooting earlier
this year.
Another publication, the Fort
Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel was also “crippled this weekend by a computer
virus that shut down production and hampered phone lines,” according to a
story on its website.
A Department of Homeland Security official said in a statement: “We are aware of reports of a potential cyber incident affecting several news outlets and are working with our government and industry partners to better understand the situation.”
The Los Angeles Times was the first publication to report the story of Monday’s earthquake thanks to a robot writer.
Journalist and programmer Ken Schwencke created an algorithm that automatically generates a short article when an earthquake occurs.
Ken Schwencke told Slate magazine that it took around three minutes for the story to appear online.
The Los Angeles Times was the first publication to report the story of Monday’s earthquake thanks to a robot writer
“Robo-journalism” is increasingly being used in newsrooms worldwide.
The LA Times is a pioneer in the technology which draws on trusted sources – such as the US Geological Survey (USGS) – and places data into a pre-written template.
As well as the earthquake report, it also uses another algorithm to generate stories about crime in the city – with human editors deciding which ones need greater attention.
Other news organizations have experimented with algorithm-based reporting methods in other areas, particularly sports.
The generated story does not replace the journalist, Ken Schwencke argued, but instead allows available data to be quickly gathered and disseminated.
Internal emails sent by the promoters of Michael Jackson’s planned 2009 comeback concerts saw them voice concerns over his stability and health.
In one email, sent the day Michael Jackson appeared in London to announce his This Is It shows, he was described as “an emotionally paralyzed mess”.
“[Jackson] is locked in his room drunk and despondent,” AEG’s Randy Phillips told company president Tim Leiweke.
The message was in 250 pages of emails obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
Internal emails sent by the promoters of Michael Jackson's planned 2009 comeback concerts saw them voice concerns over his stability and health
Randy Phillips told his boss he would try to “sober him [Jackson] up” ahead of a press conference at the 02 arena on 5 March, 2009.
Michael Jackson eventually made a five-minute appearance that day in front of hundreds of screaming fans, 90 minutes later than scheduled.
Lawyers for AEG said most of the correspondence was produced as discovery in ongoing litigation and did not give a complete picture of events.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the emails are likely to feature in two legal actions set to come to trial next year.
Lloyd’s of London, the shows’ insurers, are seeking to nullify a $17.5 million policy, claiming AEG made false claims about Jackson’s health and readiness to perform.
In a separate action, Michael Jackson’s heirs have accused the Anschutz Entertainment Group of pressuring the singer to carry on with the comeback despite indications he was too weak.
Numerous emails show Lloyd’s of London unsuccessfully seeking access to five years of Michael Jackson’s medical records.
A Lloyd’s underwriter wrote that repeated requests for written records were “always” met “with no response”.
Michael Jackson died on 25 June 2009 from an overdose of the powerful anaesthetic propofol.
Last November his personal physician, Conrad Murray, was convicted of his involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to four years in jail.
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