By Bruce B. Brugmann
Coming back from a special meeting of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) in Santa Domingo,
I was pleasantly surprised to find a solid story on the front page of the Chronicle (Thursday, July 26th) laying out PG&E’s sorry record on blackouts.
The head was good: “The Blackout Blues.” The subhead was apt: “PG&E leaves customers in the dark more often than the other big utilities in California.” The lead was a real lead: “”Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers encore more frequent and longer-lasting blackouts than other Californians, state data show.”
The second graph provided telling detail: “Tuesday’s power outage in San Francisco and the Peninsula was no isolated incident. In 2006, the average PG&E customer lost power for more than 4 1/2 hours, according to statistics compiled by the utility and submitted to state energy regulators.”
It was prominently displayed with a nice graphic and lots of dramatic white type on a black background.
The reporter, David Baker, with help from Marisa Lagos and Cecilia Vega, did a lot of work to get the story in shape so quickly after yet another PG&E service fiasco.