Washington Post Cut Off From Outside World
BREAKING: If you're trying to contact someone at the Washington Post to see what Tina Brown could possibly have meant by the sentence, "The somber ecclesiastical face began to crack like a mask," stop trying. (More on that later.) Posties are cut off from the outside world -- or at least from their @washpost.com email addresses. Managing editor Steve Coll sent a memo over the Post's internal system:
(sent to: ALLNEWS)
Early this morning, the domain name washpost.com expired. Network Solutions, which manages internet addresses, apparently notified the Post of the pending expiration via a drop-box that was not being monitored. The domain name has now been restored, but it will take an unknown period of time -- at least a few hours -- to propogate across the network. In the meantime all external email has been disrupted and external senders are receiving delivery failure notices.
For now, please send me all hot tips about misbehaving National Park Police, reporters caught littering and Supreme Court Justices recovering lost books.
UPDATE: Post tech support has a followup message:
The Post's domain problem halted mail delivery to the Post and prevents email from leaving the Post under a washpost.com email address. This could continue to be a problem for several hours.
If you were or are expecting email from outside sources, or need to send email out, we advise that you create or point contacts to an Internet email address (yahoo.com, hotmail.com, msn, etc.)
Our tipster has another suggestion: "We also recommend you acquaint yourself with that rectangular grey object on your desk. It is called a telephone."