I am ashamed to admit I no longer subscribe to a print newspaper. I never thought I’d find myself saying that—I love newspapers and got my career start working on them. But for various reasons I get most of my news these days from the radio or online.
But I still love the romance of newspapers and will always cherish them in a nostalgic way, even if they are no longer how I remember them. So when I had the chance I picked up an eighteen-page brochure called “The Story of Your Newspapers,” published by the Reading Eagle and the Reading Times of Berks County, Pennsylvania in 1960, I jumped at it. Click on any image for a larger version.
The Reading Eagle, which was the afternoon edition, is still in business, though it appears that it long ago combined with the morning edition Reading Times. Very few cities today support two papers, let along morning and afternoon editions. But in those days even a modest-sized town could have several newspapers.
The brochure takes us behind the scenes to tell the story of the two broadsheets, from inception in 1868 (The Eagle) to modern times (circa 1960). And where better to start than with a portrait of founder Jesse G. Hawley. He is followed by the then-current officers of the Reading Eagle Company.
You may think a newspaper is all about editorial and production efforts. But this brochure shows that it takes a sizeable office staff to get out the paper—from the bookkeeping department to the advertising sales team.
In fact, there are very few pictures of the newsroom, though here are several editors discussing the news and a picture of the wire room with multiple teletype machines.
Much attention is given to the art staff, who are responsible for both illustrations and ad composition.
Composing pages back then was a real construction job. The Reading papers set metal type on Linotype machines and used a Ludlow for larger type and headlines.
A modern newspaper in 1960 had a lot of different sorts of darkrooms, both for traditional photography and graphic arts photography used in composition and plate making. Note the printer in the second photo dipping plates in an acid bath with no gloves or respirator.
Like many newspaper publishers, the Reading Eagle Company also offered (and still does) commercial printing services; it even owns a local radio station (WEEU 830 AM). It’s a full-service media operation. And of course these days the Reading Eagle has a happening website.
My first memories of newspapers are from the early 1960s, and I imagine they were produced very much like the Reading Eagle and Reading Times. I feel bad for not supporting a modern print newspaper, but, sadly, they just don’t make ’em like they used to.
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This article was last modified on March 2, 2021
This article was first published on May 27, 2011
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