The Nebraska Press Association annual meeting is scheduled for later this month in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Program topics will include “Creative Ways to Cover Your Community,” Maximizing Digital Ad Revenue,” “Reviving Rural News,” and “Niche Products.”
Times are changing for the newspaper business but they have been changing for a long time.
Some of my first associates at The Express remembered when all the type for each issue was set by hand. It was quite revolutionary when mechanical typesetters like the Linotype replaced handset type. I wasn’t interested in the newspaper business until phototypesetting computers and offset presses were introduced. We are still using our 60-year-old offset press but we started replacing the phototypesetting computers 39 years ago. The Express was among the first newspapers in the rural area of either Kansas or Nebraska to adopt phototypesetting computers, MacIntosh computers and laser printers.
While at the Nuckolls County Museum on Sunday afternoon, I looked at the museum’s printing display. The display includes a case of handset type, a Linotype installed at the Superior Journal office in the World War I era, a foot-powered Golding Press built before 1900, a Compugraphic typesetter like the one we installed in May of 1970 and the first computer used by The Express with floppy discs. We were excited to think we could type, see the letters displayed on a screen, make corrections and save our keystrokes for use the next day. Once satisfied with our writing, we output to punched tape which was then fed through the Compugraphic, printed onto photo paper and developed.
Though times have changed and continue to change in this business, somethings have stayed the same and that will always be the case. The need for information is not going away and we will always want it faster and at less cost.
For example, I offer the following letter published about 90 years ago in a Nuckolls County newspaper:
Dear Editor;
Please send me a free copy of your newspaper containing the obituary of my aunt. Also published the enclosed clipping of the marriage of my niece. And I wish you would mention in your columns, if it doesn’t cost anything, that I have two calves for sale and our church is having a chili supper Friday night and the tickets are only 75 cents. As my subscription is due, please stop the paper as I can’t waste money on newspapers.
Signed, Ex-Subscriber
One of the current drivers of newspaper change is the U.S. Post Office.
If the current postage increase goes into effect in July as scheduled, the cost of mailing your newspaper will have gone up 50 percent in the last two years. We have had lots of inflation the last two years but 50 percent can not be justified, especially in light of the declining service.
I wasn’t a reader but I remember when a Kansas City newspaper was delivered in Superior on the day of publication. Not any more. On Saturday I received newspapers mailed in adjoining counties on April 4. That was 10 days to travel an average of 30 miles.
Monday was April 15th, tax day. It was once the busiest day of the year for the post office. In the cities post offices stayed open late to postmark the tax mail. Most of that business is now gone and taxes are now filed electronically.
Friday I electronically sent an affidavit to the office of an attorney handling the settlement of an estate. Not so many years ago, the attorney’s secretary would have walked across the street and handed the document to an officer of the court. That is no longer possible. All such documents must be filed electronically.
All public notices printed in this newspaper are now posted on statewide websites. That means if you have something of interest that you want to check on, you don’t have to read several newspapers. There is one site to check for Nebraska and one site to check for Kansas. And so, while you have an easy way to check on a current item, the printed newspaper still provides a historical document that will be around for years.
I found the included letter to the editor while skimming through a near century old newspaper. And I learned in 1914 my Grandmother Wrench was visiting relatives at Asherville, Kansas. It was a story that would never have been preserved electronically.
The newspaper story didn’t tell me how she got there but I suspect she went by train. My guess is she may have taken the Burlington from Nelson to Superior but from here I’m not able to guess. The Missouri Pacific served both Superior and Asherville but there would have to been at least two train changes when traveling between the two communities. As an alternative, she could have taken the Burlington route south until it met up with the Missouri Pacific but that would have added a train change. As the wife of a Burlington employee, the employee fare reduction may have been worth the added transfer.
How many hours do you suppose that took?
I accompanied Grandmother on her first and only airplane ride. When I mentioned to my mother how surprised I was to see Grandmother easily sleep on the plane, I learned my mother wasn’t one bit surprised. She said her mother had learned how to sleep on the train while traveling.
Also in reading a century old newspaper, I read about my great-grandparents’ golden wedding anniversary observed in Nelson at the home of their son and family.
At the current time readers of this newspaper can have it both ways. For the same price they can get a printed copy delivered and have access to our electronic addition. And this week that electronic edition not only includes the printed pages of The Superior Express, Jewell County Record and Nuckolls County Locomotive-Gazette, it includes access to the supplements from Ideal Market, Ace Hardware and Bomgaar’s that were inserted in this week’s printed editions.
The electronic edition may be reached via anyone of three internet addresses. Take your pick, they are superiorne.com, jewellcountynewspapers.com and nuckollscountynewspapers. com.
Since we are using an off-the-shelf web site that was designed for just one newspaper title you need to do a little looking but the content of all three newspapers can be found on the site. The last issue gave some folks a little trouble for when posting we forgot which month month is was an dated the entries as March 11 and not April 11. However, all the April content is available.
A subscriber trying to renew his subscription last week forgot which year this was and dated his check 2023. The bank refused to cash a 2013 check and he had to be called and asked to submit a new check with the correct year. Good thing I use a computer to write most of my checks for I frequently find I write 19 when when I should be writing 20.
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