Newspaper page width now 11" wide, 41% narrower!

[SteveSuffRIT]

Below is a YouTube video (3:22m) I created in 2020 during Covid for my students at Erie Community College in Buffalo, NY. It shows how the width of a newspaper page is getting narrower over time, to reduce costs.

The newspaper where I worked,'23-'26, has been sold and is now printed a 3 hour drive away. Page width getting narrower!

Also, the college has eliminated the printing program, where I taught for 15 years, due to low enrollment. See post

 

[jwheeler]

Interesting video seeing the width of those newspapers shrink!

I remember some years ago, a young man came to my door trying to sell newspaper subscriptions. It was either $1/mo or $1/yr...either way, extremely cheap. I learned many years earlier while working at a magazine printer that the subscriptions aren't how they make their money - it's the ads. The subscriptions let them show the advertisers how many people read their read their material, so they can charge more for their ads. The subscription fee MAYBE covers the cost of printing and distribution...and I assume the same thing applies to newspapers.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[gordo]

Oh no!

Does this mean that the traditional newspaperman's hat will no longer fit?

For more on this important issue click here: The Wayback View – The pressman's hat

 

[keith1]

The subscriptions let them show the advertisers how many people read their read their material, so they can charge more for their ads.

This is exactly why Rolling Stone Magazine and others publish one 'Best Of' list after another. It's all about clicks & sucking people into their web site.
If you're a reader of any of the many forums out there you'll see people debating these lists for days on end. It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn magazines/newspapers picked the Best Of entries at random out of a hat. It's the clicks they're after, to show advertisers.
Once again, all about money. The overall state of journalism is another story.

Some newspapers have been reduced to the size of what comic books once were. Comic books have almost become the size of pamphlets.
During my paperboy years we'd be hauling around some heavy loads, especially the Saturday edition . . .through snow storms . . .I'll spare you my treck to & from school.
At that time, nearly every house & apartment subscribed to the local paper.

 

[keith1]

the traditional newspaperman's hat

When touring a newspaper shop floor, part of the itinerary was the guide making a hat.

 

[SteveSuffRIT]

Recently, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced they are closing soon. They are 240 years old, the largest and last remaining "daily" paper (only print twice a week) in Pittsburgh.

 

[jwheeler]

Oh no!

Does this mean that the traditional newspaperman's hat will no longer fit?

This reminds me of when I first started learning how to run an offset press, the ol' cussin' pressman showed me how to fold a coated sheet of paper into a tray where he would store leftover pantone ink that he mixed.

This was the same chain-smoking pressman who would put his still-burning cigarette onto a stack of paper with the ash just hanging off the edge when he needed both of his hands. I was sure he would eventually burn the shop down. Then one day, I came in to open up, and there was heavy smoke filling the whole shop. I thought it was him finally burning down the place. Turns out, there was some sort of chemical reaction happening in the bin of used washup rags from a combination of the new 'environmentally friendly' inks and/or washup we were recently sold. The shop smelled horrible for days!