Discussion

By HARVEY LEVENSON on Oct 06, 2023

Frank Read the News Today, Oh Boy
As usual from Frank, he provides a great historical account and perspective about the start of the demise of newspapers.

I’d like to add that the compression of newspapers started in the early 1900s with the identification of and elimination of the serial comma to save space. For those interested in details see paragraph 3 under Abstract, and pp. 3-4 of the following PDF. This is a paper I had published in the International Journal of Linguistics and Communication in 2015, entitled: “Hidden Influences on Clear Communication—From Punctuation to Technology…How Business Decisions Impact Print.” https://hrlsite.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/linguistics-paper-final.pdf

By Joe Treacy on Oct 11, 2023

Frank, I appreciate the explanation of how the width of a column dictated how quickly the Linotype could advance to set a column.

And, the explanation of why press operators wore the printers’ hats (the overspray). I never knew why that landmark headpiece developed. Gotta love the hat, and Frank modeling it!

For anyone who’s never held a broadsheet newspaper and might’ve grown up around tabloid-sized papers such as New York Post or (gasp!) Weekly World News, you owe it to yourself to visit the Museum of Printing and spend some time with the broadsheet newspapers they have there.

The entire feel of the broadsheet is so very different. Sort of like an old, analog version of today’s widescreen TVs. But packed with interesting articles and period advertising that never fails to delight.

I, for one, would’ve loved to have seen Frank’s indispensable TypeWorld tabloid cast as a broadsheet. That would’ve been tremendous typographic fun!

I’ve been so smitten over the years with the visual experience of larger-format newspapers and newsprint (whether the usual grade, or the stiffer, brighter white option, and the Financial Times’ pink pages), that in 2003, at a time when most printed type catalogs were 8.5”x11” or chapbook-sized, I hired The Bridgeport Post to print a huge Treacyfaces.com type catalog for my company. To this day, in this online age, our crisp white newsprint catalog is still one of my favorites we’ve done. Compared to “virtual”, it gives me the opportunity to actually hold huge type specimens in my hands.

So, I’m one who has mourned the passing of broadsheets.

It’s also very interesting for graphic and publication designers visiting the Museum, to surround yourself with how news page design itself reacted and adapted to both the diminishing trim size, as well as to the increasing competition — coming from not only other nearby and national papers, but also from magazines and television.

I also very enjoyed reading Dr. Levenson’s paper discussing the origin and history of the serial comma, which he linked to in his response to this video.

Including “There was no such thing as a ‘serial comma’ until it was eliminated.” Fascinating.

Compelling reading, and I appreciate the Dr. Levenson’s research and exposition very much.

Thank you, everyone.