Sunday, November 12, 2017

The smart way to lay out the newspaper


Years ago, I was working
as a copy editor and writer at a daily newspaper. On Saturdays, five of us would put out the sports section, and I'd spend the night fuming.


Why? All five of us would get pages to lay out. Each of us would use two computers, a "blue" tube for editing copy and an INL (interactive news layout) to paginate (design) the pages.

That was a cumbersome way to lay out a newspaper, and they have easier ways to do it now. But we were stuck with that method then.

The problem is that the area where we worked only had three INLs. The slot editor would come in at 4 p.m. and take one. Then two other editors would come in around 5 and take the other INLs.

The fourth editor would come in sometime between 5 and 6. I was always the "late guy" (staying late to look for mistakes), so I came in at 6. The fourth editor and I didn't have INLs, but we still had to lay out pages.

We spent the evening working on blue tubes and trying to get someone to let us use his/her computer so we could lay out our pages.

The normal (smart) way would be to have the three INL editors lay out the sports section and have the other two editors be "rim" guys (edit and cut copy, write headlines and cutlines) for the first three. It's a simple method that every other sports department in the country would use. (That paper's news side did it the smart way.)

But, no; we had to spend the evening trying to find an open INL. And fuming.

It's one of the reasons I left the paper after just over 10 years. I might have stayed another 20 years if we'd done it the normal (smart) way.

I've been gone nearly 20 years, and it still chaps me.


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