Just Pixels

An interesting thing about being in the newspaper biznass is not the grit of a life spent chasing after the ever indubitable story. The story that always seems to be cresting the horizon as you pull into sight of it, and which has you always in a place of flux — never quite arriving or allowing you a proper requite. Though I have to say that part has its own charms, as maddening as chasing the wind becomes at times.

No, no. An interesting part (and one that is perhaps most often overlooked) of writing stories for a news outlet is how it's created, each year, month, week or day, depending on your publication's particulars.

It's the great relative of Gutenberg's epiphany at work, and it brings Frankenstein to life every week here in rural Wyoming.

Behold, the printing press! (cue stirring music)



The Budget goes to press every week here in the Douglas metropolis. (cue laugh track) Usually (depending on the four newsroom slackers) we get it written by about noon on Tuesdays and it's printed by about 7ish in the p.m. It hits the paper drops late Tuesday or early Wednesday for the spellbinding dissemination of Converse County's most cutting edge news. We're the leading paper of the county, might I remind you (read: only paper of the county).



But none of this would be possible without one veritable super man. He dresses in civilian clothing and is more often covered in ink than not. He is Richard the Great, and he's SOLELY responsible for getting the paper printed every week (this is a lot of responsibility, fyi). Here is Ol' Ricardo flashing a toothy edge of competence while printing some high qual action.

When the newsroom gets slow, boring or I run out of nutgraph ideas, I go to the backroom and just watch the press churn. It's a nuts 'n bolts symphony that grooves. I like to just sit and watch it. Puts my head back in order, likely giving my upstairs brain-rat some motivation to turn his wheel faster.


CYAN! Each paper goes through all the CMYK stations. Cyan! Magenta! Yellow! blacK! (here's where you call on Captain Planet). The newsprint rolls through, picking up the according colors and making a pretty paper that Ma and Pa can be proud of. It's a nifty process. I have no idea how it works. I like to think it's just magic. All of it. More interesting that way.


MAGENTA!


YELLOW!


blacK! (cue Cpt. Planet!!!)

note: i guess cmyK sounds better than cmyB? who knows...


Looking down the line. Starts with yellow.

...rollin, rollin, rollin...keep those doggies rollin...

(note: i think we print like 5,000 copies of the paper every week)



And so I leave you with a parting shot of Richard the Great. He's a great guy, obviously. It's always good to just talk sensible things like press mechanics and tools and stuff. Being a reporter can be kind of convoluted. It's hard work pretending like you know what you're talking about all the time...

The end!