NewsBeat

February 2023 NewsBeat 20 NewsBeat A NEWSLETTER FOR NEW YORK'S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS Published by the New York Press Association 621 Columbia Street Extension, Suite 100, Cohoes, NY 12047 518.464.6483 • 518.464.6489 fax • www.nynewspapers.com Executive Editor — Michelle K. Rea Layout & Design — Rich Hotaling PA NY Display Advertising Sizes and Standard Box 4.5"w x 3.25"h $300 Horizontal 9.25"w x 3.25"h $500 Vertical 4.5"w x 10.25"h $750 Full Page 9.25"w x 10.25"h $1,000 The lost language of newspapers er. Typed into the top right-hand corner of each sheet of copy paper and numbered se- quentially, the catchline should be relevant to the story. Carbon or 'black' – A copy of a news story. Reporters would insert two pieces of copy paper into their typewriter, with a piece of carbon paper in between to make a copy, in case the original was lost or dam- aged in production or there was a subse- quent legal query. Casting off – The art of estimating the length of a story, taking into account type size and column width, so that it fits snug- ly into the space allocated for it. A key tool in the analogue sub-editor's shed. Change page – A planned, editionised update for the next edition to freshen the news or to incorporate stories from a par- ticular locality. Chase – Steel frame designed to be tightened to lock the type in place when a hot-metal page was complete. Chinagraph – An extra-thick wax pencil used by sub-editors to mark photographic prints, showing the crop they wanted. Easi- ly wiped off afterwards, and usually red, in my experience. Copy boy – Teenagers employed to carry copy (news and sports reports) from the copytakers (copy typists taking dictation from reporters over the phone) to the news and sports desks. Very occasionally, there was a copy girl. Copy paper – Paper on which reporters typed their stories. Cut from the waste newsprint (the stuff papers are printed on), a sheet of copy paper was roughly 7 inches wide and 5 inches deep (17.5cm x 12.5cm). The intro stood alone on the first sheet, with two or three paragraphs per sheet thereafter. Copytakers - A bank of typists, wearing microphone headsets, who took reports over the phone from journalists in the field. A reporter might think about wrapping up their piece when the copytaker asked: 'Is there much more of this?' Copytaster – A journalist whose job was to read ('taste') all incoming stories and decide which of them should be published and their relative prominence in the paper. Creed room / wire room – Communica- tions hub where typed messages were sent and received from external locations via a teleprinter. Some teleprinters produced punched tape, for data storage. Deck – Depending on where you learned your craft, a deck is either a single line of headline (e.g. a four-deck headline has four lines) or a term to describe the whole headline. Delayed drop / dropped intro – Unlike the standard news formula, where the nub of the story is summarised in the first paragraph, the delayed drop starts the story slowly and gets to the point only after several paragraphs. Dis – To throw away a story that had been typeset in hot metal (presumably de- rived from dismantle). Drop cap – An oversized initial letter at the start of an article. Dummy edition – A not-for-distribution prototype of a new or redesigned paper. Ears / earpieces / lugs – Small, premi- um-priced advertising positions at the top left and right corners of the front page. Em (mutton) / en (nut) – A measure of type width, based on the letter m and the letter n. In hot metal days, sub-editors would mark stories to be typeset 'nes', meaning a nut (or en) indent on each side of every line of type. This had the effect of building in white space between columns. 'Ends' – Typed by the reporter at the end of each story, to signify it is complete. etaoinshrdlu - A phrase Linotype opera- tors would set when they had made an er- ror. The letters were the first two columns on the left hand side of the Linotype key- board, which was organised by descending letter frequency to speed up the operation of the machine. It was far from unknown for etaoinshrdlu to find its way into print. Filler – Short (one- or two-paragraph) stories sent to the composing room to fill a hole, in case the planned content fell short. Flong – A flexible, papier-mâché mould which takes an impression of the forme (the flat, metal page assembled by a com- positor). From the flong, a semi-circular metal stereotype is cast, for use on the rotary press. Continued from Page 19

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