I had no idea what I was going to write this blog post about until I was walking home from Editing today and I hear this car honk at me. It was my editor-in-chief Tommy Trafton yelling at me to get into the car. I got into the car, saw that one of the buzz photographers, Abby, was there as well. I asked where we were going and got no reply. All they said is that I will know when I get there.
We parked in Champaign and started walking. I noticed we were headed towards the direction of The News-Gazette and began wondering what exactly we would be doing there. It turns out we were going to take a tour of the printing press where the DI and buzz are printed. We have one of our biggest issues of the year coming out tomorrow, so Tommy wanted to see it being printed.
It was a great experience to see where the papers are printed. We leanred that that printing press used to do the Chicago Tribune until last April when they lost the contract. I also learned that to print buzz, the printing press uses about 4 tons of paper.
It was great to see where the buzz and DI are born each day/week. Plus, te guy who gave us the tour was super nice. I reccomend checking it out if you can.
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I bet that would have been an interesting tour, Keith. When I first started writing for The Daily Illini last fall, some of my friends asked me where it was printed, and I had no idea. Although I figured it out eventually, I still have not seen the News-Gazette's printing press where it actually takes place. So do you mean it used to print the copies of the Chicago Tribune that were disributed in this area? Do you know how many copies that was or who has the contract now?
ReplyDeleteA press is great to watch. And you really start to appreciate how quick a blog post is by comparison.
ReplyDeleteI had a chance to tour the News-Gazette's printing press a couple of years ago. I agree. It was amazing to see how "papers are born." I found the massive roles of paper used to create the papers the most interesting. I never realized how much paper the newspaper business used on a daily basis. During the tour, I also found it impressive to watch the people work so skillfully with the presses. To me they looked like large, complicated machines, but the men made their work seem so easy.
ReplyDeleteHey maybe there is an upside to newspapers going online ...
ReplyDeleteWe waste less trees! I wonder how much of the paper is recycled. Wait ... is it all recycled?
Anyway, I'd like to take a tour for sure. It sounds cool!