NewsBeat

February 2023 NewsBeat 21 Forme - The final, made-up page as it leaves the composing room, with all the type within the chase and locked in place. Fudge / fudgebox / box – A device that enabled late-breaking news to be printed without stopping the press. A Stop Press column on the front page would be left blank so stories that broke after deadline could be 'fudged'. Furniture – Editorial content that ap- pears in every edition but isn't news, features or sport (e.g. puzzles, horoscopes, index panel). Galley – Metal holder for carrying type around the composing room. Galley proof – A proof of a single story, taken from a galley. Key content requiring special attention, such as the comment col- umn, would be checked from a galley proof at the earliest opportunity, rather than waiting for a page proof to be pulled. Gash copy – Random content used as a placeholder on a page until the 'real' con- tent - usually a late-breaking story or was available. Gash page / spill page - A page filled with editorial content that can be ditched to make way for late advertisements or an overspill. Grant machine – A projector the size of a phone box used to magnify or reduce artwork and project on a light box so an image could be traced off. Hot metal – A mixture of molten lead, tin and antimony used to create lines of type on a typesetting machine. H&J – Hyphenate and justify. Arrang- ing (justifying) type into lines of uniform width, using hyphens to break words where necessary. 'Kill' / 'Must kill' – An instruction to take a story out of the production process, often for legal reasons. Klischograph – Mechanical engraving machine used to scan photographic prints and convert them into zinc images. Lamson tube - A system of pneumatic tubes that sent plastic capsules containing editorial copy around the building, primar- ily from the editorial department to the composing room, powered by compressed air. Leading – Spacing between lines of type. Blank pieces of lead were used to stretch an article that had fallen short of its allo- cated space in the page. Linotype - Invented in 1886 and still in use 100 years later, the Linotype machine set type a whole line at a time. This revolu- tionised newspaper production - until then, type had been was set by hand, letter by letter. Ludlow (Typograph) - A machine for set- ting type in larger sizes, such as headlines. The Linotype machine only went up to 24pt, which is where the Ludlow took over. Masthead / Titlepiece – The newspaper's title, as displayed on the front page or on top of the leader column. More / mf / mfl – Used by reporters at the end of each piece of copy paper to signal that there is more to follow / more follows later. Mutton dash – The standard width of a dash was the width of a letter m (aka 'em' or 'mutton') in whatever type size was be- ing set at the time. NIB – A 'news in brief' single paragraph story. Off-stone time – The deadline for a page and / or complete edition to be finished in the composing room and sent to the next stage of the process. Orphan – First line of a paragraph that appears at the foot of a column or page. To be avoided. A minimum of two lines is preferable, to carry the reader over to the next column. Overmatter – Material that has been type- set but isn't needed for the edition. Overnights - The inside pages for the next day's edition of an evening newspaper, written and subbed in the afternoon, after the on-day edition was finished. Page furniture – The non-editorial ma- terial that appears on every page (e.g. the folio / dateline and advertising). Printer's pie – When a galley or a whole page of type is spilled on the floor. Usually accompanied by a large side order of bad language. Quoins - Metal wedges used to lock type in place in the chase. Rag out – A story from the newspaper's archive, used as a graphic, with ragged edg- es to make it look like it has been torn out of the paper. Ragged right – A device for adding white space. The left-hand side of the story is jus- tified ('flush left') but the right-hand side is not, so it looks ragged. Random - Area of the composing room where compositors assembled the separate paragraphs of a hot metal story. Runner - A live sports report from the stadium. Written 'back to front' - the re- porter files the team news and some colour (weather, pitch condition, the teams' cur- rent form), then a description of the match in several short takes, and finally the intro, distilling the outcome. Running turn – Where an article reaches the bottom of a column in mid-paragraph, naturally leading the reader's eye on to the next column. Warms the cockles of even the most miserable sub-editor's heart. Set and hold – Instruction to typeset an article not yet placed in the paper and to hold it in the composing room pend- ing further instructions. Often used for pre-written obituaries. Nothing to do with hairdressing. Shadow box – A ruled box around an arti- cle, with two adjoining sides having slightly thicker rules, producing a 3-D effect. Slug – a single line of hot-metal type. Smalls – Small classified advertisements, such as Items for Sale. Fiddly to typeset, it was a job often given to the most skilled compositor on the staff. Spike – A brass spike set in either a wooden or metal base, on which news ed- itors spear stories that are not up to pub- lishable standard. Squeeze to fit – If a story was fractionally too long, the compositor employed a device to crush the lines of type together. This always felt like cheating. Starburst – Device popular in the 1970s, often white on black or a garish colour combination, used to highlight content such as prize competitions. Stick – A small galley, about six inches long. 'Give me a stick' meant: "Write about six inches-worth of copy'. Take – One sheet of copy paper contain- ing editorial material. When time was tight, a news editor would bawl at the reporter: 'File it in takes.' (i.e. give it to me one sheet at a time) to help speed up the production process. Thins – The thinnest of the available strips of lead used to space out stories that fell short in the page. Top - Any story bigger than a NiB (news in brief) or a filler, usually six paragraphs or longer. Newsdesks would have two wire baskets, one marked Tops, the other Fillers. Typescale / em rule – Ruler marked with the most common point sizes, used for measuring type and sizing pictures. The Reproduction Computer (aka picture wheel) was also used to size pictures. Widow – A line of type which falls at the top of a column and is less than the full width. Poor typography, to be avoided.

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