Depressed

One time our agate clerk lost a file, started screaming and cussing and pounding his keyboard ... just as a cub scout troop was walking past.

 

We don't even have that reminder. Shortly after the closed out press room, they took two parts over to the mothership to expand its press' capability and sold the rest for parts.

 

Sorry about your press Colton. I'll tell you what, we're printing five surrounding smaller dailiies at our shop and right now that's what's keeping us afloat.

 

Colton, apologize for nothing. You're fine.

We still get classes in the newsroom to see what is going on. I need to tag along with them sometime at this place because I still haven't seen the production, at least not more that a superficial view. It makes me particularly grateful for the previous stops, where we did talk with the press folks. Most were really accomodating and very decent people and knowing them and knowing that many went above and beyond the basic duties served as motivation to make things as easy as reasonably possible. There were times I couldn't help for reasons far beyond my control, but otherwise offer those folks a hand. They understand the art of communication and reciprocation.

Thanks for the reminder, Colton.

 

Thanks for the story Sam. A good press crew is money in the bank. About two months after I started this gig in sports, the other half of the department quit. During football season. On short notice. So on the first Friday night I was a half-hour or so late. The paginator kept them off my back that first Friday, but on Saturday one of the guys came up and, nicely, asked what was going on. Word hadn't filtered back to them yet I was now a solo act. Never heard from them on a Friday again.

 

In some ways I like to think press rooms helped keep journalists a little more in touch with the average joe than most professionals. Probably a little easier to have concern for the working class when you basically have a small factory a door away.

 

I loved it when we still had a backshop back when things were still cut and pasted on to the section. They were all let go sometime around 1998 or 1999. Not to sound like an old fogey, but there was a sense of purity in seeing the columns come out and have everything pieced together... I remember being very sad when they were let go.

 

I kind of miss those days, too. Spent a summer during college working at the hometown paper doing cut-and-paste.

When I got here, our cut-and-paste shop was a union shop. One day all that was left to do was cut one paragraph out of a wire story. No one was around, the guys were working on getting some news pages done, so I took a knife and cut the paragraph. Shop foreman saw me do it, and just chewed my ass for about 10 minutes. I made sure to never do that again.

We had one guy who, as soon as the foreman blew the whistle for the first group to go to lunch, would put down the knife and walk away, no matter what was left to do. One day he did it with one paragraph to cut on my page. Someone else had to come over, cut the paragraph, and take the page back to the pressroom.

 

Watching the presses run and being one of the first to leaf through the finished product was always one of the great joys of the biz. God, I miss those days.

 

Appreciate the kind words, folks. It's such a sad time for everyone at our shop. I find myself looking for my buds from the pressroom to come in and check on how a game is going, swap a DVD or just talk sports.

At our shop, there were none of the imaginary walls at night that are way too prevalent during business hours. We all worked the crappiest hours, for less money, in most cases, but we all did it one way -- together. Any time there was food, I made sure and took it out to the guys in the pressroom and the folks in the mailroom and they were always, without exception, so appreciative that someone took an extra second to think of them.

Next up for our presses that ran so long and hard for 43 years? Torn down and parted out.

I've got this feeling it's happening to myself, too.

 

It's not just the presses. In a very literal sense, copy desks are being torn down and parted out, too.

 

I'm going to sound like a complete newb, but after starting up in this biz doing internet-based freelance work a few years ago, I made my first visit to an actual newsroom late-last year with a fellow beat writer who works for a local daily. He gave me the grand tour: showed me the presses, the newsroom, the photo room, etc. and I couldn't help but be awed by the vastness of it all. It was like being a child and watching how the toys were made. Never looked at a newspaper the same way after that.

Colton, thank you for sharing your story. It really made me stop and reflect on how much this business is about people. It's why I pursued journalism in the first place. The people.

Best wishes in the future.