Hurricane News, Mostly Uninterrupted by Ads

The effects of Irene — as hurricane, tropical storm or wet and wild troublemaker — had marketers, agencies, media companies and retailers scrambling all weekend and into the new workweek. By some estimates, Irene became the most disruptive news event for advertising plans since Sept. 11, 2001.

Tens of millions of dollars of commercials and print advertisements were canceled or postponed to accommodate the decisions by television, radio and newspaper executives to devote sustained coverage to the storm. For instance, in New York City, television news programming was continuous on stations owned by the national networks. They pre-empted regular network and local programming for more than 36 hours. “We weren't paying attention to the revenue stream during the height of the storm,” said Peter Dunn, president and general manager of WCBS-TV, Channel 2. “We did run a couple of breaks, but it was very, very little compared with what we normally run.” “When you’re in the heat of it, you want to make sure to get the best coverage to viewers,” said Mr. Dunn, who is also president of the CBS Television Stations division of the CBS Corporation. “Then you think about making advertisers whole.”