National Newspaper Week 2020 - Making a newspaper from Newburgh News 10-5-1945

Composing Room Next Stop in Imaginary Tour of News

Posted 10/8/20

The next step on our imaginary tour of The News plant in observance of National Newspaper Week will be in the composing room where an average of 100,000 words daily are set in type, arranged to …

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National Newspaper Week 2020 - Making a newspaper from Newburgh News 10-5-1945

Composing Room Next Stop in Imaginary Tour of News

Posted

The next step on our imaginary tour of The News plant in observance of National Newspaper Week will be in the composing room where an average of 100,000 words daily are set in type, arranged to provide pleasing composition, and locked in metal forms.

Nowadays the art of printing is not glamorized as it was a few decades ago, and many persons look upon it as a humdrum routine. It has its own fascination, however, and its importance in the production of a newspaper is obvious. Its appeal is attested by the fact that very few printers ever leave the profession and that many who have been on leave during the war are eagerly returning to their old jobs.

A battery of linotype machines, similar to those in use in every newspaper plant in the world, produces most of the "straight matter" and smaller sized headlines. Larger type, like those used at the top of the first page and on some inside pages, as well as "streamers" which go right across the page, are set by hand. A large part of the type used for display advertisements is also set by hand.

Each Line Separate Slug
Each line of type is on a separate lead slug. These slugs are collected in their proper sequence and aligned in columns to form complete stones. Heads are set on separate machines with larger type, and are added to the stories which have been assembled in "galleys" or metal forms. After corrections have been made, the stories are assembled in the page forms.

This assembly work-known as "makeup," - continues on the makeup "stones" as fast as type is made available. Along two parallel banks, page forms are assembled simultaneously for the Newburgh and Beacon papers, both of which are printed in the Newburgh plant. Occasionally there is an article in the Beacon edition which is considered of interest to Newburgh readers. This type is lifted bodily from the Beacon form after being used there and inserted in one of the Newburgh pages, with an appropriate credit line to show that it came from The Beacon News. This practice also works in reverse, with Newburgh material appearing in the Beacon paper.

Of course all United Press wire copy is used in both papers. By setting all the type for two papers in the one plant, it saves the time and expense of setting up a duplicate for every world news story that is received from the United Press. The same thing is true of articles received from Gannett National Service in Washington and Gannett Empire State Bureau in Albany, assuming that the subject matter is appropriate for both newspapers.

Printers Work Swiftly But even with this time-saving system, the printers must work smoothly and swiftly to complete their tasks before that ever-threatening deadline.

Printers who have "ink in their veins," as the old saying goes, might challenge any assertion that their profession is lacking in glamour. An actual tour of their realm - instead of this make-believe visit - might prove they are right. Their world of type and ink must be pleasant, they say, because even the "type lice" love it. And that is something that any printer would be only too glad to demonstrate to any interested visitor.