Dateline: Long Island (1964)

Long Island New York America's fastest growing Community Home place of business playground for The millions who live in Nassau and suffk counties but Long Island wasn't always like this not many years ago it was a quiet semi- rural community just a place where things were going to happen and this is our story maybe it's because the sun seems to hit that place a little more often or maybe it's a spot of fertile land that coaxes a farmer to it with Promises of fulfillment maybe that that's what brings men to a place men who make things happen men who take the promise of a place and make it grow and if it's an exceptional place it's likely to attract exceptional men men to write poems when lilacs last in the dard bloomed and the great star early drooped men to build castles men to lead the strenuous life and to lead the nation men to do things for the first time great Deeds like lindberg's solo flight across the Atlantic [Music] this is Long Island a place where things have happened are happening are going to [Music] happen just as gold brought settlers to California something is bringing people to Long Island if you ever lived in the city you'd know what attracts people to Long Island they all come for the same reasons out here there's room to breathe you can afford your own home with a yard there's room for the boys to grow among the trees in Open Spaces the way I did not surrounded by gasal and concrete and there's plenty of room for their father to relax in beautiful parks and recreational areas and our fine Parkways make it easy to get there you couldn't drag me back to the crowded City I've got everything I ever wanted right here the best stores and shops excellent schools for the children from elementary through High School even colleges we're modern out here but we haven't forgotten our heritage we have a knack of preserving the traditional alongside the new most of us work right here on the island back in 1940 it was one out of three most of us were commuters then but now the situation is reversed and more than two out of three work here where we live we've got a lot of jobs to do on the island from building planes and missiles to cameras and transistor radios big business and small we've got a lot of Farmland here too and the ocean has been important to us from the beginning for business for pleasure along a th000 miles of [Music] Waterfront seems there are a lot of reasons people come to Long Island and they've been coming since as far back as the early 1600s but the real population explosion is comparatively recent more new homes built in 9 years of Long Island growth than in the whole history of Boston the oldest States once so typical of the island are disappearing or being broken into smaller developments where once a single Mansion stood now 20 people own their own small castles Long Island is a place of [Music] contrasts of diversity of both people and [Music] places from the Queens County [Music] Line to mon talk point that's 100 miles and it's filled with the greatest variety of things and people you're likely to find anywhere suppose you wanted to shop and your favorite stores were miles away or suppose you wanted to deliver a political idea to all the people on the island when they don't even have one government just separate counties townships and Villages what's needed is a Communications medium that not only reports the news of the nation and the world but one that reports and interprets s and takes part in local happenings with the interest of a leading citizen it's the kind of communication that Wells hundreds of different communities into the nation's fourth largest city I remember when I first saw that garage where we were supposed to put out a newspaper a daily newspaper but Alicia Patterson our first editor and publisher said it could be done that was way back in 1940 A lot's happened since then it wasn't a very big operation and some of us didn't know too much about putting out a newspaper but we had our share of Pros on the team Miss Patterson set our objectives our first second and final objective is to present the news if we present the news honestly we know we will have readers news day will be an independent newspaper news day will be a liberal newspaper and we grew in Nassau and in suff today Newsday staff numbers more than a thousand and its circulation is approaching 400,000 World War II changed the face of Long Island it had brought over 100,000 defense workers to the area and the end of the fighting overseas released millions of GIS to fight at home for some place to live on Long Island and imaginative building concern levit and Sons had an idea about this problem a new kind of Long Island home was designed a quality house but one that could be rented for $60 a month the key was assembly line Construction of homes without sellers built on radiant heated concrete slabs this was not a sales promotion gimmick it was a guarantee of 2,000 rental homes to return servicemen there was nothing to rent in those days the veterans were doubled up in attics and sellers most of them couldn't afford to buy homes so rental homes were a necessity unfortunately other people had different ideas our sources told us that the Hemstead Town board might block the project because of an archaic building code requiring basements so Newsday jumped into the fight on the side of the veterans our job was to campaign for changing the local building code so the levit homes could be [Music] constructed we dug into the facts we found there was nothing technically wrong with this new type of construction the main battle was to be fought on May 27th the day the town board met to decide whether to change the code none of us will ever forget that meeting thousands of veterans answered newsday's call they jammed the town hall ready to stay until they got the decision they wanted the long awaited battle was over in 20 minutes the code was revised clearing the way to build levit Town levit Town set off the explosive post-war growth of Long Island it was the beginning of the Island's tremendous building boom homes ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 getting those building restrictions changed brought a great influx of people more business came to the island and this in turn brought more people thus began a cycle that never has [Music] ended the managing editor of Newsday at the time of the Lev toown battle and many other big stories was Alan hathway now executive editor he joined the paper in 1942 we got into the lewn fight because we believed in it and in the things it would do for Long Island it would have been easier to sit back and Report events as they happened but we also happen to believe that a newspaper should take a leading part in civic affairs a good example of this is the deing story this labor racketeer had placed himself above the law and his power was threatening to strangle Long Island's growth to news day it became more than a story it was a crusade our investigation took several years but the effort paid off when we had uncovered all the facts the C's corrupt Empire toppled Newsday was awarded the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for that campaign and we've earned the Poke award for distinguished achievement in journalism three times whether it's exposing a greedy dog pound operator or fighting against medieval nursing homes or campaigning for lower taxes and better government newsday's approach to journalism is to Spotlight these stories dig deeper into them than anyone else and to fight the battles for our readers that our readers cannot fight for themselves a good newspaper is a good team it takes a lot of people working together to do what Newsday must do every day it means reporters and rewrite men and men in the composing room and at the presses it means correspondence in Far Away places as well as coverage of women's activities here at home it means editorial writers who pinpoint the significance of the news and help readers to form constructive opinions and editorial cartoonists to drive these points home it means photographers columnists and SP Sports writers Librarians and it means carrier boys who bring the paper to your door newsday's teamwork might be most graphically Illustrated in the production Department one of the finest in the country Floyd Maine the production manager is the Man In Charge our objective is the highest quality typography and presswork but we have to keep our eye on a clock too the story might have taken months to develop but once it's ready to go there can't be any [Music] delay the story comes to us from the city room [Music] the story is set into type on the liner type machine here metal molds of the story are assembled and the lines of type are [Music] cast these lines make up the columns [Music] gley proofs are made of The Columns of [Music] type these Galley proofs are checked for accuracy by proof fre [Music] at the direction of the makeup editor the printer places the type in the page form also known as the chase there are two pages in each Chase then to The Stereotype machine where a paper machave Matrix or matap is made this cardboard map is a mold of the type pages the matap is formed into a curved shape it is then sent by conveyor to The Foundry the metal press plates are cast from The Stereotype map for use in the printing operation the curve plate is cast trimmed cooled [Music] and sent to The Press [Music] Room the plates are locked onto the press one plate for each two pages in the paper the presses gather speed printing folding and turning out papers at the rate of 1500 per [Music] minute from press to mail [Music] room to truck that's right all that in just 20 minutes less time than it takes you to watch this entire film it's an operation of speed and of great size Newsday uses 200 tons of paper a day and 800 gallons of ink but with the size and speed it's a quality operation on six different occasions we've received the AR award for typographical Excellence news day in order to meet the heavy and increasing costs of publication must be a successful business Enterprise the man who sets the paper's policies and plans and directs all operations is Captain Captain Harry F gugenheim president and publisher of Newsday he presides over quarterly and special meetings of the board of directors and over weekly meetings of the executive staff where operations are reported and policy decisions are made he established the policy under which sound employee compensation and benefit plans with fine working conditions make Newsday a good place to work business assistant to the president and the man responsible for control of all funds and financial records is Harold Ferguson business manager and controller he directs activities of the accounting department preparation of financial statements budgets and tax returns he directs Building Maintenance and Service alterations and expansions of plant facilities the business manager buys newsprint and Equipment conducts labor negotiations and is responsible for operation of the employees retirement plan a major source of any newspapers income is from the sale of advertising space newsday's advertising Department sells linage in charge here is Ernest Levy the advertising director you know actually news day is Long Island it pulls all our towns and Villages and unincorporated areas together into one huge Community comprising America's fourth city diversity and distance creat special problems for our business people so that they have to do a special kind of selling job and we're on news day help them to do that in a special way today Long Island is America's new Major Market with the highest spendable income for household in the nation the best Market in the country for people with something to sell Newsday is Long Island's Marketplace that's why we carry more advertising than any New York City Daily Long Island doesn't have an uptown or a downtown there is no other side of the tracks here we've got hundreds of modern retail districts that combined to make Long Island what of a America's top Metropolitan shopping areas Long Island is a community and Market on Wheels this gives the Long Island Shopper and shopping a unique character once it was all a problem of distance but news day solved that through its great volume of advertising news day became the Shar window of Long Island and the force that pulls Long Island's business Community together saving our readers time money and effort but being a member of a community means more than just doing your job and going home Newsday has found some unique ways to serve Long Island for instance there's the annual Adopt a Family program we had our first appeal just before Christmas 1951 charitable and Welfare agencies supplied us with the names of 28 needy families without revealing their identities we told our readers about their misfortunes today we handle nearly 200 cases every year and our reader response has been overwhelming we have more donors than recipients the main purpose of newsday's public service department is to broaden the paper's role as a good citizen our activities run from providing helpful Public Service booklets for Long Island ERS on a variety of subjects to campaigning for the preservation of historic landmarks newsday's annual Eastern bowling tournament is one of the largest in the [Music] country each week thousands of Long Island high school students study free copies of newsday's weekly review in their current events classes and every year hundreds of Long Island High School boys and girls compete in newsday's high honors competition for the Alicia Patterson Memorial scholarships within 3 hours after the tragic death of President Kennedy Newsday published and distributed a special 8-page extra on the assassination free as a public service to its subscribers awards for public service are among the many journalistic honors won by Newsday over the years every Department of Newsday Works to make the paper a good citizen from editorial right on through to the circulation department Jack mullen's the circulation manager just in case you're wondering how the circulation department helps to build Long Island remember we have over 6,000 of the best carrier boys in the country our well R to carry advancement program is preparing these boys be the leaders of tomorrow with the delivery of a Newsday route comes the responsibility business experience and self-expression which will serve them well in their adult lives this is the crucial final Link in newsday's communication job this is where Long Island's great distances are conquered to show our appreciation we have established Camp news day a camp where our honor carriers spend a great week each summer the news day carrier program is considered a model for the rest of the nation news day is essentially a home delivered paper so that everything that comes before does not mean a thing without the news day carrier boy Newsday has a strong publisher in Harry Guggenheim who sets and directs the papers policy in his daily editorial conference with Mark Ethridge newsday's distinguished editor Captain Guggenheim and his wife Alicia Patterson felt from the beginning that there was more to Long Island than Village lines so Newsday did what it could to help Long Island grow and the paper itself grew with the island today it is as diverse as the area it serves from the New York City Line to montalk point before her death in July 1963 Miss Patterson told how Newsday had grown we are faced with the added responsibility that comes from growing up to meet these new responsibilities we have expanded our coverage in news and public service and in the interpretive story of the problems that face us here and abroad for news day is many things to many people to some people our newspaper is a quick summary of what's been happening in the world to some it's a way of passing the time pleasantly to others it's a disappointment in the third race to still others is a sharp window with 100 miles of shops but most of all we are the town Forum where men and women can exchange ideas distance and diversity from an elegant restaurant on the North Shore of Nassau to Main Street in Sag Harbor from Manhasset Bay to Jones Beach preserving the old and building the new the new Long Island America's fastest growing city since its first issue in 1940 news day has been an independent alert and hard-hitting newspaper it has grown in influence and in readers much of the credit for Newsday success must go to the energy ability and personality of my late wife Alicia Patterson working together we built a staff able to produce a good newspaper I intend to continue to publish the same kind of paper to be successful today a newspaper must contain all the elements of the best journalism to fill the needs of modern newspaper readers but beyond that if must Inspire complete confidence in its Integrity the publisher must be above the reach of individuals and political parties and his personal ambition must be directed solely to honest journalism the Publisher's responsibility is to keep his entire newspaper Fair as well as forceful gay interesting educational and helpful to its readers he must expose wrong and endlessly fight the abuse of power in whatever high or low place it lurks that will continue to be the aim of the publisher of news day and that's how the news gets to Long Island l