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A look at early newspupering reflects publishing progress i

Click to see original imageWith National Newspaper Week coming up in October 1 have been thinking of major mechanical and technological improvements in newspapering which have come into use just during my years as an editor and writer. The list would include photo composition and offset printing to replace the old hot metal system. modern prmses with full color capability, ever-improving wirephoto reception. and compttterned word process ing and other high tech facilitim for faster transmission and production. l should mention also the wide variety of headlinei types how available, and the larger. easier-to-read type faces for the news itself. Through the years l have collected many newspaper front pages tmostly co pies but some originals) that carried news of memorable and hismric events. Looking through these, l’m impressed with the vast improvement in attractiveness and readability of todayls newspapers over those of bygone eras which didn’t have the advantages the industry enjoys today, Use of banner headlines and other multicolumn heads, more newspictures and other graphics, getting more white space into the pages – these are some of the techniqum that help to refine a newspaper’s appearance and makeup, when you think of big stories of the 19th Century – such as the assassination of Abraham Uncoln, the Civil War, the Chicago fu-e, and the Custer massacre M it’s easy to mentally visualize large, bold headlines that shout for attention. But take a look at daily newspapers of that period and you’ll see quite the opposite – very small headings, many of them mere labels, and so few that long columns of gray type are largely unbroken. Yet the publishers in those eras did a .5 great job with the equipmeit and technology they had. Their work reflected expertise and dedication. t e l.et’s consider a few front pages going back to the 1Hti0’S: ‘ The New York Times of April 15. 1865 devoted much of Page 1 to Linccln’s assassination. There were no banner headlines, no pictures, ‘The several inches of small headings were confined to the first tleftl column. The New York Herald likewise had only small singlecolumn heads. Both the Herald and the Times had wide black column rules symboltzing mourning for the president. The Philadelphia lnquirer’s layout was quite similar but without the black t borders. V t Less than a week before Lmcoln’s assassination, General Robert E. Lee had surrendered his Army of Northern Virgmia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, virtually iending the Civil War. i ‘ ,- The New York Daily News devoted most of its April 10, IBBS front page to the surrender and other war news. A series of small headings occupied four to aix inches in the first, third and sutth columns. There – were no multi-column headlines. ,i The New York Times of July-7, 1876 itdevoted ‘almost ‘all -of the ft-ont’ page to ptreporting the slaying of Lt. Oni, George A. kluster and more than 200 of. his men in “battle by a powerful l.ndian force. The only h ding larger than tl1e body type wu at the top of the first column. in one ‘ line, it said simply; “The Little Big ‘ Horn.” The story coverage, however was graphic and detailed. , . The disastrous Chicago fire of 1371 got Y- somewhat bolder treatment in the New York Herald of Oct. 10 with a light banner, “Fire and Death in Chicago.” Toward the end of the century, larger headline types began to emerge. as indicated by banner headlms in these newspapers in my collection: ‘ The Morning Journal of March 13, 1888 in covering a massive snowstorm in the New York area; the New York Journal of Feb. 17, 1898 in reportiru; destruction of the warship Maine in Havana Harbor: and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat of May 8. 1898 in announcing defeat of the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay by American forces with Adm. George Dewey.