The Las Vegas Review Journal or any newspaper, for that matter, is an important vehicle for advertising during the holiday season. Where would we be on Black Friday or Cyber Monday without those long awaited ads (whether they be in print or online)? The somewhat complicated creation of a newspaper takes place everyday in almost every city across the world.
Take the Los Angeles Times, for example. Since its first issue on December 4, 1881, the Times has never missed a day of publication. Take this tour to find out how the newspaper in your town gets to your doorstep every day.
(The following is reprinted with permission from The Los Angeles Times. Although some of the Los Angeles Times’ printing facilities and operations have changed since the original writing of this article, “a day in the life of a newspaper” – or the process of creating a newspaper – remains the same.)
#1 How do you make a news story?
Step A: The Assignment: Los Angeles Times reporters get their stories in a number of ways. Early a.m. editors check the overnight news and hand out assignments to reporters for the day. Reporters who have assigned beats (or territories) they cover usually come up with stories by calling or hearing from people called sources - in their assigned areas. Many stories that appear in The Times are from reporters who have developed ideas on their own (called "enterprise journalism"). The Los Angeles Times newsroom is fairly quiet in the mornings, as the reporters are usually out in the field working on stories.
Step B: The Reporters: Foreign correspondents located in far-off bureaus, domestic correspondents, state correspondents, local assignment reporters, beat reporters, columnists and others usually file their stories in the afternoons. Some file stories in the newsroom at The Times, others from far-away places such as Moscow or Kabul, using a satellite phone for a direct uplink and some from a sports stadium, a bureau in New York City, or from home (as columnists often do). The first deadline comes up at 5 p.m. in for the California Section, though truly important stories could be rushed into the paper as late as 11 p.m. - requiring a "re-plate" (changing the front page with a new printing plate). In rare instances, that can happen up until midnight. Sports can run later than other sections, due to overtimes and extra innings or competitions like the Olympics in other countries (and time zones). But National, Foreign, State and California stories are usually wrapped up by 9:30 - 10 p.m.
#2 How do you digitize?
For Academy Awards coverage, for instance, a photo station will be set up and a photo editor will stand by with a laptop and a modem. Photographers give their digital cards to the editor for electronic transfer back to the newspaper. Photographers outside of the plant locally or as far away as any foreign country can send their photos back to the newspaper in a similar manner by using sophisticated satellite phones to uplink to communications satellites. Times photographers and reporters presently send their materials to Los Angeles from Afghanistan using this technology.
#3 How do you edit?
Editorial Conferences: About 2 p.m. every day, editors meet in a conference room to discuss the daily "budget" or list of stories planned for the next day's paper. The editors decide which stories will go on the front page of The Times and which will be placed inside. Photographs are also chosen to illustrate stories at this point. Editors make certain stories are fair, well written, and easy to understand. Headlines are then written by the copy editor, who corrects grammatical, spelling, or factual errors. Finished stories are sent to the news editor. The news editor makes a page layout or "dummy." The dummy shows where the copy and the pictures will be on each page of the newspaper.
#4 How do you compose?
How the newspaper page is designed: Each day, The Los Angeles Times is laid out, page-by-page, on the computer. This process of arranging each page’s stories, headlines, photos and captions on the computer is called pagination. Pages used to be laid out on story boards, with "make-up" men and women pasting velox copies of stories, photos and headlines to "make up" each day's page. Pagination allows the page designer more flexibility and speed in putting the newspaper together and making pages ready for plate-making and printing.
#5 How do you print?
Step A: Plates Are Made For the Presses: After pagination (or page make-up) is completed, the next step is to transfer the images from the computer to an aluminum plate in the plate-making department. Each aluminum plate is coated with a chemical called “Diazo” that changes when exposed to light. Images from the computer are used to create film negatives, which are then put over the aluminum plates and exposed to ultraviolet lights. The plate picks up the image of the newspaper page from the negative, with the dark or exposed portions of the plate becoming a magnet for ink. (Technology today has allowed most newspapers to skip the “negative” process. The paginated page can be transferred by laser beam directly onto the aluminum press plate.)
The plate is then put on the printing press roller and inked with water and ink. The ink adheres to the proper areas (text & photos) and is washed away from the non-inked, gray areas by the water. Then a roller (called a blanket roller) will pick up the ink and transfer it to the newsprint. This process of transferring the ink is called "offset" printing, as opposed to direct plate-to-plate letter press printing, which was phased out in 1981.
Color printing requires four plates (four-color printing). This is standard color printing for the industry, both newspapers and magazines, although an art book or calendar, and some computer printers can go much higher (perhaps up to six colors).
Step B: Rolls of Newsprint Are Prepared: Trains and trucks deliver the rolls of paper used on the printing presses. Even the largest rolls at 2,600 pounds and eight miles in length are stacked six high in the newsprint storage area until they are needed for the presses. Workers, using clamp lifts, will unload the railcars and trucks lifting two or three rolls at a time to the top of the paper stacks.
The Times purchases newsprint from many different companies, including sources in Oregon, Washington, Canada and even Korea. Much of our newsprint is recycled fiber paper. The newsprint from Smurfit, for example, is comprised of 50% recovered fibers. Newsprint costs are The Times’ largest expenditure, after salaries and benefits. One roll of newsprint can cost more than $650, depending on prevailing prices.
Step C: The Paper Is Printed: The Times(when this was written) had/has three printing facilities: one in Chatsworth, one in Costa Mesa, and one in Los Angeles (the Olympic Plant). The Olympic Plant pressroom is longer than an American football field (500 feet from end-to-end). This room contains six 12-unit Goss Colorliner presses. These presses can print an average of 1,000 96-page papers a minute and can handle 24 pages of full color and six pages of spot color when printing a day's newspaper.
The aluminum plates prepared in platemaking are mounted on the printing units, from one to four pages across and on the reverse side, as well. Thus, the sheets of paper – called "webs"– are printed on both sides simultaneously. The average printing speed is about 15-25 miles per hour. Once the plates are on the presses, they are washed with water and ink, with the ink adhering to the developed images and type. The ink is then transferred to a blanket roller, and this roller places the ink on the paper.
Press operators will monitor the newspapers, visually checking them for print and color quality and to see how well they have been collated and folded. They don’t stop the presses to make adjustments; they use computers to change what the presses are doing as they are running. If the paper tears – a "web break" – the press(es) will shut down automatically, and the operators must rethread the paper by hand, slowly and carefully.
Step D: From Printing to Shipping: The yellow conveyor clips in the pressroom will carry finished papers to the shipping and delivery area. If pieced together, this clip system would be more than 1 ½ miles long. Papers grabbed by the clips have emerged from the presses printed, collated (arranged in order) and folded. They are ready to read!
Step E: The Stacks Are Wrapped: Once the newspapers have arrived in the shipping and delivery area, they are dropped into stackers that count the papers and create bundles of approximately 50 copies. There could be more if the newspaper contains fewer pages and is therefore "thinner" on a particular day. Each completed bundle moves along conveyor belts to a machine called a "palletizer." This machine automatically creates a stack of papers on a wooden pallet.
#6 How do you distribute?
After the pallets of papers are wrapped in plastic to protect them, they are loaded onto Times' trucks and transported to distribution centers throughout parts of Southern California. At distribution centers, the pallets of papers are cut open, and the various sections of the newspaper will be collated and inserts, ads, coupons and/or free giveaways (such as a packet of detergent) will be put inside the paper. The newspaper will also be bagged, depending on the weather and/or subscriber wishes. This "stuffing" of the newspapers - as it has always been called - is still done by hand by the delivery personnel. Preprinted items are done outside of The Times, including our Sunday Magazine, TV Times, and Parade Magazine. Our presses print only newspapers - magazine printing requires a different sort of press and different paper, plates and ink. The advertiser furnishes preprinted ads, inserts and coupons. Some inserts appearing in The Times are printed by a Times Subsidiary.
#7 How do you deliver?
After “stuffing” is complete, newspapers are delivered by the independent contractors (delivery personnel) to a subscriber’s doorstep. More than three quarters of a million Los Angeles Times subscribers get their daily newspapers by 6 a.m. every morning Monday through Saturday. Sunday papers are delivered to almost 1.4 million subscribers by 7 or 7:30 a.m.
Student Activity: Find out about the daily newspaper in your hometown! Call the newspaper to find out if they give group tours of their printing facility. Arrange a class tour for your class, if acceptable to your teacher. When you return from the tour, create a story titled “A Day in the Life of the __________” telling all about your city newspaper. Include information you learned on the tour.
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