While all the major cable news sites (CNN, MSNBC, ABCNews, Fox) overloaded quickly and became virtually inaccessible during the first hours of the crisis, PR teams were on the
job and continued to respond to press queries throughout the day. According to MSNBC's Peter Dorogoff, MSNBC.com traffic increased tenfold on Sept. 11, with 300,000 to 400,000
unique users hitting the servers at any given time.
The New York Times was especially effective in sending four or five updates to their large base of registered users throughout the morning, even though its own main site was
inaccessible to most visitors during the first hour of the crisis.