Many changes over the decades

I was asked recently how long I had been in the newspaper business.
I had to pause and think. My brother, my sister and myself all grew up in the business. My brother and I began delivering papers when he was ten and I was twelve. Together we had one of the larger paper routes and when the subdivision opened up behind our home on Third Street, we set out to have the largest Times carrier route.
That was several decades ago. All three of us went from paper routes into the business, first as part timers and then into full time work.
The person who asked the question was someone my age contemplating retirement.
It seems strange thinking back to all the changes that have taken place in the newsroom. Manual type-writers and Linotypes were discarded in favor of electric typewriters that punched ticker tape. The electric typewriters were replaced by the first computers with screens for typing. We would carry floppy discs around to a machine that would print out columns of type.
Those first machines called Compugraphics were replaced by the first generation of Apple computers and everything was connected together.
In the composing room, we did away with lead and went to pasting with bees wax pictures and type for advertisements. The ads were placed and pasted on layout sheets and the copy from the reporters was pasted around the ads.
The pages were photographed and then burnt to metal plates to go onto the press.
Our first press could only print 12 pages at a time. Everything was black. Today if we used all the units together, we can print 28 black pages. Instead we still only print 12 pages but can have colour on several of the pages.
Almost 40 years ago we began using 35mm cameras and processed all of our film in a darkroom and printed the pictures in the dark room. To get the pictures into the paper required many steps, but it was much better than when we worked with lead.
Today our reporters use digital cameras and several of the cameras can even shoot short videos which we can put online at the HYPERLINK “http://www.fftimes.com” www.fftimes.com or HYPERLINK “http://www.rainyriverrecord.com” www.rainyriverrecord.com web site.
The paper is produced electronically, and the hard copy now only comes off the press. The paper continues to be delivered by carriers and Canada Post.
Many of our readers today read the paper on line. There are stories that appear on line that don’t appear in the paper because of space restraints. Whole galleries of high school prom pictures, sporting tournaments, concerts, and even the polar plunge can be seen on our web site.
Only occasionally would one see a colour picture or advertisement in the paper. Today there is a colour picture on the front page every day, and often coloured advertisements on the inside pages.
The newspaper industry continues to change and we are continually working to stay abreast of changes and incorporate changes in the way we produce newspapers for our readers. The industry remains exciting and the new reporters and staff continue to make improvements to our paper.
We look to adopt other changes to include receiving videos and pictures from people for the web and to create blogs where people can present information that is valuable to the community. We seek your input about how we can serve you better and keep your newspaper valuable to you.
–Jim Cumming,
Publisher