To Inform and To Serve (1950s)

[Music] this is buffalo the second largest city in new york state strategically located at the eastern end of lake erie it early was given the title of the queen city of the lakes buffalo is a bustling community and serves as the hub of the niagara frontier its dynamic development results from an unusual diversity of industry integrity just plain honesty service in the cause of good government skilled craftsmen reporters and editors devoted to their calling that the buffalo evening news has these is evidenced by the confidence of its readers for the new is the largest daily circulation of any new york state newspaper outside metropolitan new york the hub of the news is in the editorial department news from the four quarters of the globe here passes under the scrutiny of experts who select it edit it and by adding headlines and sub heads prepare it for publication [Music] here in this nerve center moments after big news happens anywhere in the world the stories received on teletype machines and then the news editorial staff begins working on the story gathering news is a never-ending process three hundred thousand words of national and worldwide news flow into the wire room daily from the world's greatest news gathering agencies the city editor's desk is the focal point for local news coverage stories come continually from the many reporters who cover regular beats other stories are assigned by department editors every possible lead is followed for a news story must present facts completely accurately and on top of that it is the responsibility of reporters to get behind the facts and to explain what they mean here a photographer is dispatched to get a picture to supplement the reporter story as deadlines for the eight daily editions of the news come up stories pour in from all sources yet the competent editors are quiet and poised it is a scene of intense but orderly activity the field the reporter often saves precious time by dictating his story to a typist or telling a rewrite man [Music] it then goes to the city editor page by page paragraph by paragraph or if time presses sentence by sentence a great newspaper such as the news with its finger on the pulse of the area has an obligation to honestly and factually interpret affairs thus it becomes the conscience of the community over the years the buffalo evening news concerned about the welfare of the community it serves has fought for improvements both physical and cultural long ago the monument in niagara square in memory of president mckinley was erected through the efforts of the news in education the news not only fights for good schools but also for adequate training for teachers and from the old buffalo normal school has developed the state college for teacher education and the news played an outstanding role in promoting the growth of the university of buffalo which is now a part of the state university system even bumpy roads such as this are being repaired or replaced under news prodding for the news recognizes the need of adequate and comfortable highways for transportation the news played an important part in bringing the thruway into downtown buffalo when it was discovered original plans call for bypassing the city facilities for recreation have had new support from the days when it helped rest niagara falls from private commercial interests on through to the establishment and expansion of the great erie county park system [Music] the news played a major role in the establishment of a county-wide library system back in the days of streetcars the buffalo public library was already bulging with books not only was the library trying to serve buffalo residents but also residents of erie county when the suggestion for merging the buffalo library with those of erie county communities was made the news thoroughly investigated the proposal and brought the facts before the people [Music] now books of every nature are available throughout the entire county and in addition the old central library and grosvenor reference library have been replaced by this new modern building the buffalo evening news ever has been alert in recognizing community problems the news was the first to call attention to what could result from that strange new development suburbanitis an exodus of residents from the central city to surrounding towns was beginning unoccupied buildings in the downtown area were being demolished but the news pressed for urban renewal and downtown development [Music] at an editorial conference the chief editorial writer reports on his daily conference with the editor of the news it was from such conferences that research was started which written in the news years ago supporting such community projects as converting the city hospital into a county-wide hospital placing the health and social welfare departments under county jurisdiction and finally vigorously advocating the reorganization of county government under an executive setup not only through the written word but also through cartoons taxpayers are given a realistic approach to the problems confronting city state and nation by pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist bruce shanks another campaign spotlighting the erie county welfare situation won another pulitzer prize but back to the production of your evening newspaper copy prepared by editorial staff is fed to the composing room where it is distributed to skilled linotype operators who set it into type a line at a time [Music] the type goes to an assembly bank where several operators may be setting parts of the same story here the type is assembled then proofs are full so that proofreaders may research for errors and then the makeup men put the type in place on the page [Music] advertisements with illustrations and text are carefully fitted into place and the page which represents the efforts of many is put together but this type actually never goes on the printing presses to make possible high-speed printing on rotary presses curved press plates are needed these are prepared by the stereotypers in the stereotype room there a mold a matrix of tough paper is prepared by pressing it into the type under two thousand pounds of pressure this faithfully records and reproduces every letter every tiny dot on a photo engraving from which pictures are reproduced [Music] huh [Music] [Music] these mats are rushed to the casting department where stereotypers fit the page mats against a curved form into which molten lead is poured in a matter of seconds an exact lead image or reproduction a cast or plate is ready to be trimmed to precise dimensions an automatic shaper trims the press plate to hairline mechanical requirements and washes and cools the plate [Music] from this point it moves to the press room on an automatic conveyor the press men at each press lock them on cylinders after the final page has been received it is a matter of moments before the presses are ready to roll from composing room to the presses takes less than 15 minutes these giant mechanical marbles three stories high weighing two thousand tons can print fifty two thousand ninety six page papers every hour in a single day five thousand miles of newsprint may pass through these high-speed presses a strip of paper long enough to stretch to san francisco and back [Music] when the end of one of the 1600 pound rows of paper is reached without slowing the presses a new roll of paper automatically turns into position and is pasted to the depleted reel from various sections of the whirling presses the paper is channeled into folders which cut and pull the printed sheets into pages sections and the complete newspaper the presses can be adjusted to slant every 25th or 50th paper so that as they reach the mailroom the handlers can assemble bundles of the desired size for distribution to stores new stands and carrier boys by conveyor belt the papers move quickly to the mail room or distribution center this is the only time the papers are handled until they reach the delivery trucks theft hands make up bundles they pass through this machine which binds each stack with wire and then it is pushed down one of the four spiral chutes to the truck loading platform even the loading process is automatic [Music] controlling the flow of bundles to the truck this man by the flip of a switch can designate the route the bundles take as they come from the chute the papers arrive in the delivery truck ready for distribution to new stands carriers stores and other dealers throughout buffalo western new york and nearby pennsylvania day after day news informative and interpretive articles items for the whole family's entertainment flow through the presses of the buffalo evening news and on into homes where readers are kept well informed on events happening locally throughout the state and nation and around the world because it is dedicated to the highest standards of journalism the buffalo evening news is regarded by journalists businessmen educators and students as one of america's great newspapers [Music] so [Applause] so [Music] you