| Muscatine County, Iowa | |
Muscatine Journal & News-Tribune
Centennial Edition
31 May 1940
Section 1 - Page 23 & 24, Submitted by Charlene Nichols Hixon, July 3, 2012 Page 23
At Journal’s Helm Photo of Clyde Rabedeaux ~ Clyde Rabedeaux, above, publisher of The Muscatine Journal, in that capacity directs the activities of the various departments into which The Journal organization is divided.
Mr. Rabedeaux has been publisher of The Journal for the past 15 years, succeeding Lee P. Loomis in that capacity on April 1, 1925. Previous to that he had been a member of The Journal organization for 13 years, becoming the paper’s circulation manager in 1913 and advertising manager in 1915.
Active in community affairs, Mr. Rabedeaux has been identified with the Community Chest organization since its establishment, the Muscatine Chamber of Commerce, the Muscatine Rotary club and the Geneva Golf and Country club. Professionally he has been active in the Iowa Daily Press Assn., and the Inland Press Assn., of which the latter organization he is a director, having been seated in 1939 for a three year term.
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Members of the Journal Staff
Publisher – C. R. Rabedeaux Editorial Department – Walter Russel, Cora Stohr, John Van Lent, Glen Fairall, Winton Dunlap, Twyla Schreurs Engraver – Robert Bauer Mechanical Department – Arthur Schmeichel, Donald Branson, F. J. Brandt, Jack Ellis, Don Drahaus, E. Ted Harte, Nathan Hoefflin, Robert Houseman, George Keckler, Walter Koever, Raymond Martin, Raymond Toyne, Fred Van Zyl, Chris Tammenga, Newell Abbott Local Advertising – C. Lloyd Bunker, Vincent Carey, Carl Walter Classified Advertising – Clyde Grau National Advertising – Margaret Griffith Business Office – Arbutus Kill, Georgia Davidson, Edith Garnes Proof Readers – Mabel Bartenhagen, Phyllis Thompson Circulation Department – William Fahy, Mgr., John Robbins, Albert Lichtenwald, Webb Douglass, Arthur Talkington Pressroom and Stereotyping – Cyrel Dale, John Schumacher, Sam Strajack Delivery – George Carpenter Custodians – Otto Gundrum, Orla Hinkley Muscatine Carriers – Douglas Randleman, Frank Seidler, Jack McConnaha, Richard Bridges, Jimmy Figg, Richard Stammer, Kenneth Lemkau, Bob Reynolds, Paul Lenz, Alvin Trader, Irwin Metcalfe, Clifford Chandler, Leroy Metcalfe, Arthur Mittman, Dee Douglass, Jim Fahy, Robert Koenigsaecker, Dayton Howe, Richard Oberhaus, Richard Albert, Donald Davison, George Parks, Richard Klink, Harold Gerrard, Delbert Wagler, George Deems, Richard Haraoff, Robert Grafe, Eldon Davis, Dale Goss, Harold Oetzel, Delvin Sample, Paul Schumacher, Sydney Thomas, Art Talkington, Arthur Hahnbaum, Otha Johnson, Paul DeCamp, Paul Valett, Jim VanAtta, Harold Lichtenwald, Paul Hanson, Robert Jarrett, Ed Bartelt, Kenneth Leech, Edward Hatfield, Madison Tomfeld, Allen Hahn, Raymond Bronner, Clifford Graham, Richard McKean Out of the City Carriers: West Liberty – Jack Angerer, billy Hedges, Reuben White, Richard Wolters Wilton – Bob Mann, Keith Thurston Columbus Junction – Robert Dicks, Bob Dircks Wapello – Hal McGill, Bob Bucher, Robert Hook Conesville – Walter Jean Nichols – Joyce Borgstadt Lone Tree – Billy Musser Fredonia – Randall Teel Columbus City – Willard Stinson Letts – John Hildebrand
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Journal Maintains Big Organization
Publication of Daily Requires Coordination Of Various DepartmentsIn contrast with the time, 100 years ago, when the publication of The Bloomington Herald was a job for two men, Stout and Isreal, plus the efforts of john Mahin, apprentice boy, the publication today of The Muscatine Journal requires the co-ordinated service of a large organization. A full time force of 43 employes is engaged in preparing the printing each issue of The Journal, in addition to a force of 35 correspondents in nearby towns and rural communities. All function through separate departments, under the general supervision of the publisher, co-ordinating efforts so that the press may start and papers be delivered daily on time to thousands of readers.
The time was, many years ago, when one or two men, usually printers by trade, could gather the news of the community, solicit the advertising, set the advertising and news in type, operate the press, and with the assistance perhaps of a boy, deliver the copies to subscribers. The growth of the city, the increased demands for speedy service on the part of a newspaper, and the widened scope which the newspaper plays in the community’s life has changed all that.
The average operating cost of The Journal is over $10,000 monthly. Separate departments are delegated the responsibility of handling separate functions in the varied processes involved in preparing each day’s issue of a paper and in delivering it to the readers. Trained Reporters on Duty.
A staff of trained reporters, each with specific routine tasks to perform daily, is employed. Assignments are given them daily for special items in addition to those they will pick up at regularly covered stops on their beats. Gathering the information necessary to complete their story by personal interview or over the telephone, they write their story and it is passed to the city des, where copy is read, questions asked and corrections made when necessary, a headline is written and the whole is then given to the printers to be set in type. The same procedure applies to news letters received from a corps of correspondents in The Journal circulation territory.
Teletypes Speed News. Meanwhile copy from out of the city news centers is being received at sixty words a minute over Associated Press teletype machines. The doings of congress, details on the presidential campaign, developments in Europe – all are received in this way, along with events from over the state. This is likewise edited, a headline written to accompany each story and given to the printers.
Pictures are selected from those available to illustrate state and world events, picture services offering a wide selection of up to the minute material daily. Meanwhile from the Journal’s staff photographer pictures are received to accompany local news developments. Size is designated, descriptive material to ….
(Continued on Page 24)
Page 24… go with the picture written, and this is likewise given to the printers, to be ready when the finished engravings come from that department.
Meantime members of the advertising have been active, conferring with business houses on their advertising space requirements, preparing copy for advertisements and selecting illustrations to be included in them. This staff makes regular calls upon business establishments in the course of its daily work. These duties are likewise assigned and classified, with certain advertising men calling upon certain clients with separate departments being maintained for national advertising, local display advertising and classified advertising.
When layouts have been completed and space requirements calculated, near the close of the day, a “dummy” layout sheet is prepared for each page of the following day’s paper, which, with the advertising copy, is likewise given to the foreman for distribution to printers who set the type appearing in the advertisements, and prepare the illustrations for reproduction in the paper.
Printers Handle News, Ads. With news copy and advertisements to be handled daily, printers are assigned to specific tasks. Certain men may regularly be given the job of setting news copy on a Linotype machine. Headlines, which are in different sized type, are set both on the Linotype machines and on a Ludlow machine.
Other printers “on the floor” have the task of setting and assembling the type and illustrations which go into the advertisements.
When the advertisements and news articles are completed, a makeup man is given the job of placing both in a page. Type is taken in galleys from the typesetting machines, and after being proofread for errors and corrections made, placed in the page forms adjacent to advertisements.
While a page has been completed it is then ready for the page form, on a moveable truck, is wheeled up beside a heavy roller, the type placed beneath the rolls, a “hat” placed over the type and pressure applied, which leaves an impression of the page in the “mat.”
This mat is then subjected to heat which solidifies it, placed in a circular mold into which is pumped molten metal, which comes in to contact with the page mat. When the metal is removed it is in the form of a cylinder which, when properly machined, fits upon the press.
When all the pages for the day’s paper have been cast in this fashion, and clamped into the proper position on the press the day’s run is started. The cylinders which have been cast are rotated at high speed, ink is automatically applied by rollers, ribbons of paper from huge rolls at one end of the press are fed through in the proper order, and emerge from the other end of the press as a printed paper, cut, folded and counted into groups of 50, ready for the circulation department to deliver to readers.
Circulation Department’s Functions. While the other processes have been under way, the circulation department, which is responsible for maintaining circulation lists and delivering the papers to readers, has been active. There are new subscribers whose names must be added to the list to be sure that delivery of the paper is not overlooked. There are changes in address, which must be given attention.
These details have been attended to by the time the press starts running and the delivery of papers starts to the circulation department, where clerks counts out the required number of papers each Muscatine carrier boy needs to cover his route, sack and weigh papers for post office delivery, and wrap bundles for delivery, by motor to carrier boys in other communities.
The News Behind the News The work of many hands, many minds and many imaginations went into the making of the newspaper you hold in your hands. Some of the steps required for each edition are mentioned in this cartoon prepared for The Journal by E. H. Gunder, well-known NEA staff cartoonist. And even as you are reading this a force of reporters, artists, wire service men, photographers and advertising representatives – who have already forgotten the LAST issue – are hard at work on tomorrow’s editions.
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Page created July 12, 2012 by Lynn McCleary