1968 or 1988? Hard to tell the difference.

It depended on the paper. At some papers, the composing room was a sought-after job that paid pretty well, either because of a union or just because the paper wanted talented people. Most of those people were pretty good and as FnF said, could save your ass. At other papers, the composing room was where they put unskilled people who walked in off the street looking for a job. At a place like that, your page was likely to look like someone had thrown a bunch of waxed type in front of a fan and let it land on a page.

One key to working with a composing room. Never let the guy named "Shaky" do your page. AND DON'T TOUCH THE TYPE!!!