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Show ver Stop To Think Who Makes yp Today's Nevspaper .... Fver stop to consider what takes to produce even the Snallest newspaper? Lefs consider the PUBLISHER PUBLISH-ER for a moment. On a smaller rfkly newspaper, he likely is t only the editor and publish-, n0f the newspaper, but the ad man job printer, Linotype op-rator. op-rator. press feeder, circulation anag'er and bookkeeper, and nerhaps the photographer. He a Jack-of-all-trades if ever here was one. On a larger I-eekly he is relieved of some I. !f those duties, but never all them for he has to fill in many times in numerous places. His job parellels that of the editor ed-itor of a small daily. v,B4.Utudon't think for a moment that the publisher of the large daily is a one-niche man. While he may be freed of a lot of chores of the publisher of a smaller newspaper he faces a multitude of problems not common com-mon to the little man. Once you cross a certain line in the publishing business, you face the big problems of employee relations, rela-tions, labor unions, mass distribution, distri-bution, newsprint shortages, and greater and greater civic responsibility. re-sponsibility. Newspapering has become a complicated profession. The editor edi-tor must be able to sense the public pulse, evaluate the news, and relay the events of the day to the reader in such a manner that he will fully understand what is taking place at home and abroad. It is his responsibility, responsibil-ity, too, to interpret the news, advise on matters of local concern con-cern and stand up for the people's peo-ple's rights. He must "know something about everything and everything about something" the latter being the newspaper business. It is his duty, also, to display the news in his publication ' in such a manner, typographically as to attract the reader's eye to' the? more important news. At the same time, he must not overplay over-play an unimportant event; or to underplay an important happening. hap-pening. He weighs the news as carefully as the butcher weighs the meat or the grocer the apples, ap-ples, or the filling station attendant at-tendant measures the gasoline. Did you ever stop to think of that? What about the ad man? Did you know that he probably spent several years in school learning to plan ads that would appeal to you as a reader, sell merchandise for you as an advertiser, ad-vertiser, and bring buyer and seller together? Did you know that he studied merchandising, layout, copywriting, selling and continues to study those things so that he can advise intelligently on advertising and can be a merchandising counselor, coun-selor, so to' speak? Do you realize that the reporter re-porter must be a person of broad training, with a great knowledge of many things? Did you ever stop to think of the multitude of assignments he covers? cov-ers? 'Of the complicated subjects he is called -upon to report? Sit down some day and try to write" a story about a meeting you attended. For example, the city council, the medical society, the bar, the ministerial alliance, alli-ance, the P-TA. Ever try to write up a trial, a football game, a drowning, a funeral, a fair or festival all in the same day? That's a fair sample of the reporter's re-porter's job. Oftentimes, in addition, ad-dition, he has to cover the police po-lice station, the city hall, the court house, the chamber of commerce and write a feature fea-ture about the biggest melon, or the smallest midget, or the newest automobile. It's fun. No doubt about that. And you meet the finest people, the worst people, the prettiest, the zaniest all those who make life what it is. That is the reporter's job bringing you life as it is for he is the mirror of all that happens. There are society reporters, police reporters, sports reporters, report-ers, feature writers each with a separate task to perform on the larger newspapers. On the smaller publications the reporter does it all like a one-man band. Writing a story is one job. Getting it into print is another. Enter the mechanics of publishing publish-ing a newspaper. That story, that ad, that headline head-line all must be set in type. A few, very few, newspapers still are set by hand- On those, every small letter in the newspaper news-paper is picked out individually from a type case, and set in its proper place in the columns. On most newspapers, typesetting is a mechanical chore performed perform-ed by a Linotype a machine which sets, - as its name indicates, indi-cates, a line of type at a time. The Linotype operator, the com. positor, the makeup man, the pressman all have their jobs to do in the backshop, and all have spent years training for those jobs. Theirs is the big responsibility re-sponsibility of getting the newspaper news-paper "to bed" and into the hands of the readers. Distribution of the newspaper requries the' service of the "circulation "cir-culation man." On the small publication, that responsibility rests with the printer's devil (which is the name given an apprentice who is all-around handyman), the publisher's wife or a circulation manager. On the larger publications the job requires re-quires many men and big departments de-partments with special supervisors super-visors in each one for city circulation, one for mail circulation, circu-lation, a circulation manager with over-all authority and hundreds of carrier boys, street salesmen and news stand distributors. dis-tributors. Publishing a newspaper is BIG BUSINESS . . . whether it be in Podunk Hollow or New York City. No longer can a newspaper be established with a "shirtail full of type." The day of the "bedroom print-shop" passed long ago. Any newspa-regardless newspa-regardless of its size, represents as great an investment as almost al-most any business in town. Type is very expensive. Metal is extremely ex-tremely high. Newsprint has skyrocketed in price. A Linotype Lino-type machines alone costs thousands thou-sands of dollars, to' say nothing of the complicated presses. And they represent only parts of the mechanics of producing today's to-day's newspaper. For there are the melting pots, the saws, the trimmers, the strip casters, the chases, the typewriters and the thousands of little items that go to' make upxeven the smallest smal-lest plant. This is written to encourage you to visit the newspaper plant in your home town. To see how it functions, what makes it tick and to have a greater understanding under-standing of the job that newspaper news-paper is doing for you and your community. |