Everyone�s
business
Wm.
Tillman, of Montrose, who accidentally shot himself a couple of
weeks since, is slowly improving and it is now thought that he will
recover from the accident.
An infant child of Charles Rice, of Mundy township, drank a bottle
of butter color Thursday and was rather sick for a while. Dr. Handy
brought the child around again.
Miss Sarah, sister of George Rowland, of this city, will soon leave
her home in Denver for a trip to England and Egypt.
�
from front-page �City and County� news briefs, May 9, 1899.
There were also items from Davison, Lennon, Vernon,
Clayton, Clio, Gaines, Goodrich and other area locales
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Column
named names – for safety�s sake
Journal
writer Lou Giampetroni�s Dec. 21, 1969, column started with a list
of names.
One hundred and fifty-five names.
The list took up more than three quarters of the column before Giampetroni
finally posed the question: �Who are they? Dead.�
With highway safety a big concern at the time, Giampetroni put names
to the record total of traffic fatalities for the year in a pitch
for drivers to be careful as they took their families on holiday
trips.
�But
wait,� he warned, �There�s still time to get your name on the list.�
He pointedly left a few inches of empty space at the end of the
column �for those who do.�
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Journal
facts
In
one year, The Flint Journal:
• Prints 28 million copies of
Monday-Saturday papers (90,000 per day).
• Prints 5.5 million copies of
Sunday papers (107,000 each Sunday).
• Uses 15,470 rolls of newsprint,
weighing as much as 1,600 pounds each, adding up to 23.5 million
pounds. Each roll of paper costs more than $6,000.
• Uses more than 74,000 printing
plates, 35,000 gallons of black soy ink and more than 10,000 gallons
of colored ink.
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Just
the facts
 |
| This
booklet told social and service club publicity chairwomen how
to report society news for publication in the 1950s.
|
What
are the facts to be concerned about? They are the answers to these
questions � WHO? WHAT? WHEN? WHERE? and WHY? Who is the story about,
what is it about, when did it happen, where and what was its purpose?
Make sure you have answered all of these questions before you submit
your copy. Then make sure you sign your name and telephone number
where you can be reached.
�
from a Journal booklet
�For the Club Reporter,� a guide
for social club publicity chairwomen
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Photo
firsts
•
First
photograph, July 29, 1898: A photo in an ad for a train excursion
to Bay Port showed people at a lake. Photos later that year pitched
soap or cameras.
• First news photograph, Aug.
18, 1900: The first nonadvertising photo, by historian Edwin
O. Wood, was titled �Prominent Pioneers� and showed his wife, children
and grandparents.
• First long-distance photo
coverage, May 17, 1927: When a dynamite blast at the Bath Consolidated
School near Lansing killed 45 people, including 39 schoolchildren,
The Journal first traveled beyond its circulation area for photographic
coverage. A commercial photographer went with the police reporter
to Bath.
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Scanning
the headlines
In
retrospect, some news headlines speak beyond describing the story
at hand, taking on other attributes or deeper meanings:
Simplicity
• �PEACE� � End of World War II,
1945
• �WAR� � Start of fighting in
the Persian Gulf, 1991
Eloquence
•
�Lindbergh In Paris� � Transatlantic flight, 1927
Plain
speaking
• �Storm Dead Now 109, 650 Jam
Hospitals� � Beecher tornado, 1953
Understatement
•
�Most Destructive Bomb in History Blasts Japan� � Dropping of atomic
bomb on Hiroshima, 1945
Frustration
• �War in Vietnam, will it ever
really end� � (date unknown)
Unintended
humor:
•
�Unless Spanish Gunners Acquire Greater Accuracy of Aim, Havana
is at our Mercy� � Spanish-American War, 1898
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First
impressions
That
unknown fluid of awful power, which comes out of the sky, and is
popularly known as lightning, �moves in a mysterious way its wonders
to perform.� One of the most remarkable instances of its fantastic
capers, reached the JOURNAL this afternoon by special telephone
message from Clio.
�
lead paragraph of a front page story about a man struck by lightning,
April 24, 1896 (the man survived)
Charles
Stewart Mott is dead.
�
lead paragraph, front-page story, Feb. 18, 1973
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This
just in
In
1904, The Journal started getting national and world news from The
Associated Press wire service.
It was a big moment; the Nov. 22 paper bannered the news across
the top of Page One: �The Daily Journal now receives The Associated
Press telegraphic dispatches.� At the bottom of the page, editors
bragged, �For the first time in the history of any Flint newspaper,
The Daily Journal today presents the telegraphic dispatches of The
Associated Press, direct from the wires, this paper having been
voted to membership in this great news gathering organization.�
The paper put the new service to work, reporting on the same front
page that winter storms were gripping Europe, plus plenty of AP�s
crime, military and business news.
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Journal
milestones
•
1876: Charles Fellows begins publishing The Flint Journal.
The name later would be changed to The Flint Weekly Journal and
The Flint Daily Journal before it became The Flint Journal again.
•
1883: The paper becomes a daily (published Monday-Saturday).
•
1919: First delivery by airplane (a publicity-stunt flight
to Owosso).
•
1922: First Sunday edition.
•
1924: The Journal moves into its present building at E.
First and Harrison streets.
•
1954: A new pressroom is added on.
•
1961: Daily circulation surpasses 100,000.
•
1973: Era of hot metal type ends; pages are produced on paper
film by photo composition.
•
1980: Sunday comics begin running in color.
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Nicknames
and newsletters
Every
local paper has its local disparaging nickname: the Scum instead
of the Sun, Snooze instead of News, Disturber instead of Observer
� or Urinal instead of Journal.
There have been other nicknames (good-natured, we hope) for the
paper, the Miracle on First Street and the Old Lady of Harrison
Street � playing off The Journal building�s cross streets � are
perhaps the best known.
But other names have come from within these walls, adorning a series
of employee newsletters and gossip sheets since at least the 1920s.
•
The Typo Telegram, put out by the night shift in the composing
department, was among the first, along with the Evening Snore, also
produced by non-newswriters at the paper.
•
The Flint Journal Jr. lampooned employees as early as 1927,
and in the 1950s, the night crew in Composing struck again with
The Night Hawk.
•
Since 1975, employee news has circulated in the Internal
Journal. Now a quarterly magazine-style report, it spreads news
of employee picnics and parties, hiring, retirements, births, weddings
and other landmark events � including those dreaded 40th and 50th
birthday commemorations.
�
adapted from a report in The Journal�s Centennial
special section from 1976
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Notes
about news
News
is anything that affects people or interests them.
•
•
•
A good rule of thumb for judging the importance of a news story:
The more people it affects, the more important it is.
•
•
•
News is perishable. A day late and it is news only in the historical
sense and must be treated as such.
•
•
•
Get the information complete. We can rewrite a poorly written story,
but we cannot manufacture facts nor write a good story without the
facts. Getting information you overlook takes time, a precious commodity
in the newspaper business.
�
from a 1964 Flint Journal Correspondent�s Handbook,
for contributing writers
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News
or soap opera?
With
some early reports, it�s hard to tell. It�s also hard to imagine
a modern-day news story consisting (as this article does) almost
entirely of speculation and opinion, none of it attributed to a
source:
DEEP LOVE
FOR A YOUNG WIDOW
Caused a Corunna man
to sever artery in his wrist.
Corunna, Mich., July 23 � Unrequited love caused Archie Payne to
attempt suicide. The lady in the case is Mrs. Belle Warren, a widow,
who conducts a restaurant here and the successful rival is ex-Ald.
John Trumbull, of this city.
Payne opened an artery in his wrist and was unconscious from loss
of blood when found, but will probably recover. He is a blacksmith,
30 years of age, and had a good job but, becoming infatuated with
Mrs. Warren went to work for her as a dishwasher in her kitchen.
This was three weeks ago, and for a short time the suit prospered
with the fair widow. Trumbull, however, redoubled his attentions,
and Payne soon found himself out in the cold.
The widow is about 35 years of age and good-looking. Her husband
died a few months ago. Payne is being cared for at the residence
by Mrs. Payne and a physician, and every attempt was made to hush
up the matter but-in vain.
The unsuccessful attempt to die appears to have had one good result,
an increasing of Payne�s status in the widow�s eyes, and there are
those who predict that by his sensational proof of his love for
the woman he will yet triumph over the aldermanic rival.
�
from a 1904 paper
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In
GM�s pocket
In
1927, Publisher J.R. Taylor posted a notice in The Flint Journal
newsroom stating that the name �Ford� was never to appear in news
reports. Taylor was a close friend of Buick President Harry Bassett.
In response, some wag in the newsroom posted next to Taylor�s notice
a fabricated report along the lines of �hundreds dead, thousands
injured after explosions at an automobile plant in Detroit.� The
account studiously avoided using the forbidden company name.
Taylor apparently got the point, although it did not soften his
position; he ripped down the anonymous satire and announced to the
room, �whoever did this is fired.�
�
adapted from a Centennial report by former editor Ralph B. Curry
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First
prediction
The
first copy of The Flint Journal known to be in existence � from
Dec. 13, 1876 � carried this tidbit:
�Bridal
trips are going out of fashion. We are glad to hear of it. Much
better to save the money to begin housekeeping.�
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Forecast
Fulfilled
Journal
staff writer Daniel L. Dolan recounted the history of production
at The Flint Journal � from hand-set type to machines that turned
typewritten copy into computer tape � for the 1976 Centennial edition.
At the end of his report is this forecast:
�A
further refinement, a process called pagination, is creeping over
the horizon, nearing the machine production stage.
�With
pagination, a newspaper page can be made up with computers, displayed
on a screen, changed around, then sent through the system when the
person behind the machine is satisfied.�
In a nutshell, that�s how The Journal is produced today.
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Read
all about it
Early
front pages had numerous one-column headlines, many of which were
bold �grabbers� followed by smaller type that gave details about
the story. Sometimes, there were several of these smaller headlines,
or �decks,� atop a story. An assortment from the front page Tuesday,
Nov. 4, 1904:
 |
| Young
farmer eye-witness to crime. |
•
•
•
 |
|
Nan
Patterson denied witnessing fatal shooting.
(This was next to, but not related to, the headline above)
|
•
•
•
 |
|
Three
brothers wed sisters and minister takes guest as a bride.
|
•
•
•
 |
|
How
children are brought up to break laws of the home.
Evangelist Glascock Declares That Lack of Home Training Is
Factor in Filling Prisons.
|
•
•
•
 |
|
IMPORTANT
MEETING OF PHONE MEN AT SAGINAW.
|
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Cool
reception
The Flint Journal�s main competition � the venerable Wolverine Citizen,
publishing since 1850 � was not shy about expressing its opinion
after the first Flint Journal hit the streets in 1876:
�We
shall not be surprised,� it sneered, �if it results in another demonstration
of that phase of Darwinian theory which relates to the survival
of the fittest.�
Just goes to show, you never know who Darwin�s going to pick.
�
adapted from a Centennial report by Alice G. Lethbridge
|
