Backshop Memories

 

I was telling a friend that one of the best places at the daily newspaper back in the day, at least for me, was the composing room.

That was where all of the work that had gone on the previous 24 hours and before came together in a tangible way.

All the interviews, document-searching, scanning of police reports, note-taking in council meetings and court rooms, the locker-room interviews and press box score-keeping, the photographs and maps and, of course, acres and acres of ads, were slotted on big blue-line sheets that were reviewed by copy editors using blue pencils, corrected, photographed to scale, reviewed again and again by other editors, before being cleared for the presses.

The first edition papers would roll off and even then editors would read for problems. If they found an egregious error that needed fixing for the middle or final editions, it was done, but that would cost money so the error had to be substantial to warrant stopping the presses and re-plating. Otherwise, the error would be corrected the next day.

Being a part of this bookended my years in daily newspapering. I started as a part-time copy messenger on Saturdays and Sundays shuttling between the copy desk and the composing room, and my last tour at The State before leaving for the university was as one of several night editors.

There was a different energy at that hour, a more comprehensive vision for what the paper did, and I think a greater appreciation for the people who didn't get their names in print but saved many reputations by flagging problems that had slipped by the desk.

The composing room, which was radically transformed by technology, was the epitome of "team" for me. And I was enriched immeasurably by being a part of it back then.