There is certainly something aesthetically satisfying about it. Also, you can do more with design on a page than you can with a small smartphone screen.
I admire your optimism on print but I doubt if it can survive given the costs of production compared with online and the steady decline of print subscribers. It’s noticeable at airports and railway stations how few papers are on the racks for sale. As for the Times, they are marketing their online version for £1 for three months. Desperation?
I hear you, Mike, but the other factor is advertising. Advertisers still prefer print to digital, and the rate (and therefore revenue) is accordingly higher. As for the online offers, that's just a conventional, time-honoured marketing tool. In business school they teach it as "the funnel". And it's working well, even as we head into recession. The Times paywall strategy is being copied across the industry.
I was with a group of fellow Edinburgh 70+ year olds a while ago and asked how many get the Scotsman print edition. Only one and he said it was just so he could read the death notices. 😂
Love it Kenny..although I'm Scots, I'm also a Barnsley lad being bred in Yorkshireland and my first paper was Michael Parkinson's first, the weekly Chronicle - I was the only reporter (on indentures) who skipped down to printing press room on a Thursday afternoon to watch, as NUJ I wasn't allowed to touch, my SOGAT/NGA colleagues would politely inform me (no you dont, you wasak) - but I could make them all mugs of tea which I did; the experience of watching the back-to-front slugs of text being expertly tapped into the page and introduction during my time there of web offset has never left me, Bill (Magee).
Wonderful photos and interesting read. I still get a daily paper on my morning dog walk (and the dog gets a daily treat from the newsagents). I spend enough time looking at screens in the day so I like reading good old print. Long may it last.
A great read and nice pics, Kenny. It would have been nice to see them printed large - 100 dpi on 50gsm.
One of the things I like most on my trips back to the UK is being able to buy, feel and (is this weird?) smell a ‘physical’ newspaper. Of course, it’s great for me that I can read whatever titles I subscribe to online wherever I am, but there is surely something uniquely satisfying about the tactile experience of grubby newsprint. And I do find I read differently when it’s on paper - somehow it’s more immersive. (Apologies for the en-dashes, em-dashes seem to have gone the way of Linotype machines.)
It’s nice to be reminded me of some of the lingo I haven’t heard in a very long time. Amazed how much I remember and ashamed of how much I have clearly forgotten...
Lol on the dashes! Thanks Ian, you’re a gent. Ally Palmer, who you will remember from SoS, is always going on about the smell of his mag Nutmeg. Print sniffing is deffo a thing.
Jul 29, 2023·edited Jul 31, 2023Liked by Kenny Farquharson
Your well written essay, anchored by your photographs, brought my aged brain cells back to the mid 60s when I was hired as an apprentice reporter for the Bangor (Maine) Daily News.
The hustle and bustle that permeated our newsroom began at mid afternoon, followed by 8 regional editions that were book ended by our city edition, which was put to bed by 4 a.m.
I eventually worked my way up to editing the business and technical sections, but decided by 1980 that "journalism" had become a twisted parody of what I had been taught by editors who learned their trade during the war years.
The malady infecting my trade was young "journalists" who were allowed to insert their pet opinions into what should have been straight news stories.
Thank you for reminding me that I was for a decade and a half performing a job that was actually useful.
My first real job as a printer had me develop a fondness for the old Heidelberg presses (before the Digital Xerox super-presses came about). I learned everything about pre-press, finishing, Pantone inks, telling stock weights from flicking the corner with my thumb, bromides, proofing, plates, guillotining -- and that's before all the "finishing" I learned. I went into the newspaper industry right after that, and have been in it for nearly 20 years. I'm sharing this post with my old colleagues. Thanks again.
Here's a video I made of me getting to nerd out at a newspaper printing press in France:
Quite a thought such an industry leader is located just off the M8 but the products are not mainly for Scotland but the rest of the UK. Or maybe these presses are used by Scottish newspapers also.
Mostly papers for Scotland but some for the north of England too. Eurocentral prints the News UK titles - Sun, Times, Sunday Times - and the Scottish editions of other London papers such as theDaily Telegraph.
Oct 14, 2023·edited Oct 14, 2023Liked by Kenny Farquharson
What a blast from the past these pics are! I started my journalism career as a ‘copy girl’ and when working the late shift it was my job to drive down to the print plant (by then moved out of the city centre office) and pick up the first papers off the press to bring back to the editor and night chief of staff. Interestingly, when I began training as a cadet journalist a year or so later, it was in the old part of the city centre building on the floor above where the old printing press used to be - and where my Dad had printed the paper about 15 years earlier. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
Great read. Your words and photos reminded me of the sheer amount of work that goes into a newspaper. The pleasure of a paper never goes away
There is certainly something aesthetically satisfying about it. Also, you can do more with design on a page than you can with a small smartphone screen.
I admire your optimism on print but I doubt if it can survive given the costs of production compared with online and the steady decline of print subscribers. It’s noticeable at airports and railway stations how few papers are on the racks for sale. As for the Times, they are marketing their online version for £1 for three months. Desperation?
I hear you, Mike, but the other factor is advertising. Advertisers still prefer print to digital, and the rate (and therefore revenue) is accordingly higher. As for the online offers, that's just a conventional, time-honoured marketing tool. In business school they teach it as "the funnel". And it's working well, even as we head into recession. The Times paywall strategy is being copied across the industry.
I was with a group of fellow Edinburgh 70+ year olds a while ago and asked how many get the Scotsman print edition. Only one and he said it was just so he could read the death notices. 😂
I admit my lunchtime treat is the Times obits!
Love it Kenny..although I'm Scots, I'm also a Barnsley lad being bred in Yorkshireland and my first paper was Michael Parkinson's first, the weekly Chronicle - I was the only reporter (on indentures) who skipped down to printing press room on a Thursday afternoon to watch, as NUJ I wasn't allowed to touch, my SOGAT/NGA colleagues would politely inform me (no you dont, you wasak) - but I could make them all mugs of tea which I did; the experience of watching the back-to-front slugs of text being expertly tapped into the page and introduction during my time there of web offset has never left me, Bill (Magee).
Wonderful photos and interesting read. I still get a daily paper on my morning dog walk (and the dog gets a daily treat from the newsagents). I spend enough time looking at screens in the day so I like reading good old print. Long may it last.
Screen break is a much undervalued moment in the day.
A great read and nice pics, Kenny. It would have been nice to see them printed large - 100 dpi on 50gsm.
One of the things I like most on my trips back to the UK is being able to buy, feel and (is this weird?) smell a ‘physical’ newspaper. Of course, it’s great for me that I can read whatever titles I subscribe to online wherever I am, but there is surely something uniquely satisfying about the tactile experience of grubby newsprint. And I do find I read differently when it’s on paper - somehow it’s more immersive. (Apologies for the en-dashes, em-dashes seem to have gone the way of Linotype machines.)
It’s nice to be reminded me of some of the lingo I haven’t heard in a very long time. Amazed how much I remember and ashamed of how much I have clearly forgotten...
Lol on the dashes! Thanks Ian, you’re a gent. Ally Palmer, who you will remember from SoS, is always going on about the smell of his mag Nutmeg. Print sniffing is deffo a thing.
Your well written essay, anchored by your photographs, brought my aged brain cells back to the mid 60s when I was hired as an apprentice reporter for the Bangor (Maine) Daily News.
The hustle and bustle that permeated our newsroom began at mid afternoon, followed by 8 regional editions that were book ended by our city edition, which was put to bed by 4 a.m.
I eventually worked my way up to editing the business and technical sections, but decided by 1980 that "journalism" had become a twisted parody of what I had been taught by editors who learned their trade during the war years.
The malady infecting my trade was young "journalists" who were allowed to insert their pet opinions into what should have been straight news stories.
Thank you for reminding me that I was for a decade and a half performing a job that was actually useful.
-30-
I absolutely loved this. Thank you for sharing!
My first real job as a printer had me develop a fondness for the old Heidelberg presses (before the Digital Xerox super-presses came about). I learned everything about pre-press, finishing, Pantone inks, telling stock weights from flicking the corner with my thumb, bromides, proofing, plates, guillotining -- and that's before all the "finishing" I learned. I went into the newspaper industry right after that, and have been in it for nearly 20 years. I'm sharing this post with my old colleagues. Thanks again.
Here's a video I made of me getting to nerd out at a newspaper printing press in France:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKDeZ3N_Kw4
I was a print reporter in Kansas for 37 years, and was more driven by that rumble you write about and the furious sound of the press at top speed.
There were times I'd walk into the press hall just to really feel the rumble and hear that roar even closer.
"I need to hear the sound of freedom," I'd tell the pressmen. They'd smile back at me. WYKYK.
Rollin', rollin' rollin'..
Quite a thought such an industry leader is located just off the M8 but the products are not mainly for Scotland but the rest of the UK. Or maybe these presses are used by Scottish newspapers also.
Mostly papers for Scotland but some for the north of England too. Eurocentral prints the News UK titles - Sun, Times, Sunday Times - and the Scottish editions of other London papers such as theDaily Telegraph.
Your format is really cool: inform & watch!
Thanks!
What a blast from the past these pics are! I started my journalism career as a ‘copy girl’ and when working the late shift it was my job to drive down to the print plant (by then moved out of the city centre office) and pick up the first papers off the press to bring back to the editor and night chief of staff. Interestingly, when I began training as a cadet journalist a year or so later, it was in the old part of the city centre building on the floor above where the old printing press used to be - and where my Dad had printed the paper about 15 years earlier. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
They got you hooked young!