Computer problems persist in LANG

The Unisys computer system used in the Los Angeles Newspaper Group newsrooms is still glitched, I'm told. Reporters are being asked to write their stories offline and then to email them to editors, who are able to sign on in limited numbers. This makes for a longer night and possible late Friday freakouts, but the papers should get published through the makeshift system.

The glitch caused problems with the Friday papers, with the Daily News, Daily Breeze and Press-Telegram forced to use sports and news pages from the papers in the San Gabriel Valley.

And we're back

Just returned from a long weekend away from the computer to learn The Long Nightmare is Over. Unisys, the front-end system used at all of Singleton's SoCal newspapers, is back up and running. Haven't heard yet if the meltdown has prompted LANG management to develop a contingency plan in case this happens again.

Failure to launch*

Attempts to reboot the Unisys system have so far failed and LANG editors are steeling themselves for a long, Unisys-less weekend.

"The Unisys server is still unavailable. Anticipate it being down for the rest of the weekend, leaving hope that it could come up sooner," writes SGVN New Media Editor Tim Berger in a memo to the troops.

*In semi-related news, another editor is leaving LANG. Jason Gewirtz, executive city editor at the Press-Telegram and former former Long Beach City Hall reporter there, has announced he's accepted a top editor slot at Sports Travel Magazine.