Robert A. Dubill, the executive editor of USA Today, knew before he arrived at his office that one of the biggest stories of the decade was unfolding. He was driving past the Pentagon just as one of the terror bombers struck. Here is his account of how the staff of USA Today responded to the challenge:

Editorial Operations Director Gary Hook saw the TV news flash at home. He immediately called Bruce DeWar of Advertising Operations, who was in his Tower 1 office. Hook told him we'd be needing more editorial space...that we'd like to increase the newshole substantially. He also suggested that ad agencies be notified in case some wanted to opt out of publishing certain ads because of the gravity of the story. Hook also called Tom Kelly of Circulation, who was aware of the breaking story and already communicating with general managers across the country about increasing the print draws.

Most editorial staffers hadn't yet arrived. Those living closest to the building hustled here as quickly as they could. Overnight Editor Bill Nicholson, for example, left the building at 3:30 a.m., Tuesday, only to return within hours as news broke. He stayed well after 4:00 a.m., Wednesday. Others, already here, were fielding calls from staffers calling in. Publisher Tom Curley and Editor Karen Jurgensen were assessing issues ranging from security of this building to the prospects for publishing from an alternate site, if necessary.

Stuck in traffic, I was driving my usual route to work when—from about forty yards away—I saw the American Airlines jet zooming into the Pentagon. Vehicular traffic braked to a halt. People were getting out of their cars and trying to make calls from cell phones that wouldn't work. I called the office but couldn't get through. I asked three nearby motorists to let me use their phones but none of them worked. I got back in my car and looked for a way out of the traffic jam. No luck. I then waited for fire trucks and ambulances to come by, got behind two for them and followed them past the Pentagon.

Getting the Paper Out

The first order of business was making sure that the first edition of USAT International got to the satellite on time so that press starts at our print sites wouldn't be delayed. We closed our last page for first edition international at 3:30 p.m.

When the American Airlines jet smashed into the Pentagon, traffic bottlenecked everywhere and many staffers couldn't get in here in time for the 11:00 a.m. daily news meeting. It is at this meeting where Page 1 stories are generally chosen, so, the meeting was pushed back to 1:30 p.m. Everyone knew what we'd be running on Page 1 anyway, so it was just a matter of how to package and display the story. Managing editors and supervisors from News, Money, Sports, Life, and Photo/Graphics conducted departmental meetings to deploy personnel and to get early reads on other possible stories, photos and graphics. Anne Willette, Deputy Page 1 Editor in charge of international editions, and Linda Mathews, Cover Story Editor, knew it would be some time before they got here due to traffic and security checks everywhere. They finally arrived around 1:30 p.m. Doug Stanglin, a Page 1 editor and rewrite ace, and David Colton, Page 1 Editor, started talking about Page I of International around 10:30 a.m. John Buckley, who usually writes Newsline for Page 1, was unable to get to the building. Stanglin took over his job as well as other duties. We enlisted designers and layout specialist from the sections to help conceptualize the look of the page. We decided on a seven-column headline in large type, as well as subheads and promos to major coverage inside.

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The main photo atop Newsline showed White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card interrupting President Bush during an education event in Florida as news of the terrorist attacks was breaking. The almost full-page photo on 1A showed a fireball engulfing one of the WTC towers. This photo was a "frame grab" from television. We've always used frame grabs from television when spot photos from scenes aren't immediately available. We always credit the networks and/or TV stations by name when we publish a frame grab. The cutline on this one read: ABC News via AP.

About noon, we decided to commission a quick poll of the country for reaction. We wanted to have something different from our competitors in our domestic editions.

Many USAT staffers are versatile and can handle a variety of assignments including: doing rewrite, writing headlines and cutlines, layout and design, etc. While it is our preference to have specialists focusing on these tasks, during emergencies and times when staffers are unable to be in the building, these talents are lifesavers. Many staffers worked from their homes, initially. Reporters were deployed to the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and other hot spots. Our White House staffer covering the president reported from a remote location. Staffers in our bureaus handled dozens of assignments.

We decided early on that this was a story that needed a presence in each of the sections. By day's end, our first edition of domestic carried 37 pages devoted to the unfolding tragedy. Reporters from Sports, Life and Money worked on stories for the News section and vice versa. Our correspondents in bureaus abroad were enlisted to report international angles.

Our general news meetings on the first day were held at 1:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. We made all deadlines, including three international editions as well as all domestic editions. Deadline for first domestic edition was moved ahead by a half an hour due to an extra large press run.

For Domestic, we decided to go big and bold with the most dramatic photo we could find. We found a photo of the World Trade Center being hit by a second plane, and one of the night editors wrote up a headline that said, "An Act of War." We then had a long debate over it, because an Act of War obviously is an official act. We also discussed putting quotes around it because a lot of people in town were saying that—there were certainly plenty of senators saying that it was tantamount to an act of war. A few hours before deadline, our USAT/CNN Gallup Poll results came in. One of the questions we had asked is: Do you consider this an act of war? And 86 percent of the public said yes. We used the headline in quotes.