It never ceases to amaze me how local media outlets cover national breaking news in their backyard. We saw the Times Picayune continue to publish despite their offices being flooded by Katrina, the Collegiate Times, a student run paper, not only kept students informed about the Virginia Tech shootings but also became a source of information for people across the globe including major media outlets, and the Christian Science Monitor carefully covered the kidnapping of one of their own. In each of these cases the media outlet had the ability to draw on their vast resources they use to cover te daily stories and focus them all on the breaking news.

There are however some newspapers that don’t have a large staff, a fancy website or even access to the AP. The Kiowa County Signal learned quickly how to adapt this week.

The Kiowa County Signal is the local newspaper for Greensburg, KS, the town that a tornado destroyed this week. Howard Owens is the Director of Digital Publishing at Gate House media, the company that owns the Signal. He’s blogged twice now about how the paper has had to react.

The Kowia County Signal has since launched a new site full of information. They received permission for the AP to use AP stories. Their staff is now posting stories despite their newsroom being destroyed and Gate House Media sent reporters and an editor some who will shoot video for the website.

The site also allows citizens to submit photos. Although as Howard pointed out “given the fact that the town is devastated and residents might find it hard to participate in photo sharing, we may not get anything, but I think it is very important we make this tool available — important journalistically.”

I would assume that they are not putting out a paper right now but they still keep their commitment to keep the public informed. For that they should be applauded.

UPDATE: As Howard pointed out in the comments, they are a weekly (printing on Wednesdays) but have a special edition coming out today (Monday). Also, Gate House also owns the neighboring daily in Pratt and that is where the staff is working out of. Thanks Howard for the updates.