You may notice something different about the (printed edition) paper this week.
So, to let you in on a little bit of the nuts and bolts of the business, we are super reliant on computers nowadays to lay out and design the paper. Long gone are the days of the linotype machine of my dad and grandpa’s era and the days of hand setting.
As regular visitors will note, we have an old hand press setup in the front of our office on display. That beautiful old baby was a Sanders family heirloom and now is owned by the Garretson Area Historical Society, but I’m happily storing and displaying it for them for practical reasons as well as altruistic ones. It’s a great piece to display, since it goes all the way back to the days of the Palisades Progress newspaper in our local history. Also, the Museum would have to find a place to store it, and just transporting it over there would be a big job, as it is all cast iron and weighs a ton!
In a roundabout way this brings me to my point, as I can’t use that big beautiful antique to produce a newspaper. Our last major hardware/software update was in 2018, which was six years ago. Anyone who knows anything about computers will tell you that makes the systems we were using a dinosaur in the technological world. Thankfully, my business and tech savvy partner was able to get us some great deals, updated our computers to the latest operating systems, did a hardware upgrade and has acquired new software for us to work and continue to publish more or less the same way we were doing things before. However, new programs mean I have a learning curve to achieve.
To use a vehicle metaphor, I learned to drive on a four on the floor stick shift, with manual roll up windows, manual door locks, and simple dial a.m./f.m. radio on a dial. To replace my old truck, as it were, I’ve now been given the keys to an ultramodern vehicle with all sorts of high-tech gadgets onboard. My partner is all excited about the new features and the things that it can do, and me the curmudgeon, is just frustrated that I don’t know what all the buttons do, while I am just trying to make it go.
So, those who are visually savvy will notice things that are significantly different. Some things we were able to re-import into the new software, other things we had to scrap or completely re-design on the fly. Sufficed to say that it’s been an interesting time at work since the upgrade last Wednesday/Thursday. Hopefully, the transition to these new programs will have gone smoothly this week. If you got your paper on time, you’ll know we got through it.
-G. Moritz
