It was 20 years ago but Tuesday, September 11, 2001 is a day I will never forget.
As an Oxford Mail reporter working at the paper’s office in Osney Mead, I started my shift in the usual way, preparing stories to pitch to my new editors.
But after lunch the usual rhythm of the newsroom was interrupted in the most terrible way.
Shortly before 2pm, special projects editor Nick Murray alerted then deputy news editor Stephanie Preece that a plane had hit the northern tower of the World Trade Center in New York.
Pictures on Sky News showed the top storeys of the building in flames and quickly Oxford Mail staff gathered around the TV screens and saw the second plane hit the southern tower.
News editor John Chipperfield was in a conference to decide the front page stories for the weekly Herald series when the tragic events started to unfold.
But the usual priorities of the day were quickly abandoned as everyone’s attention turned to the terrorist attack.
In spite of the horrifying events, our team of journalists stayed calm and Oxford Mail editor Jim McClure took the decision to put out a special edition for later that day.
John Chipperfield and Stephanie Preece took reports from the Press Association and sent them through to Nick Murray for the front page and the two inside pages of the special edition.
As Nick struggled to come up with the right headline for the front, Jim McClure stepped in to suggest ‘Terror rips out heart of USA’, which captured the story.
Sub-editors designed pages four and five of the special edition using stories from the reporting team in Oxford and the Press Association, and the papers were on the streets by 3.40pm.
By 5pm it was decided that the Oxford Mail would publish a second special edition the following morning, and the Oxford Mail was one of the first newspapers in the country to publish the devastating pictures from ground zero.
Throughout the afternoon the reporting team was tasked with chasing Oxfordshire residents with any New York connections.
Knowing that the world had changed forever, I felt exhausted and emotional as I left Newspaper House that evening.
But I was back in the office by 6am the next day to find new leads.
