Just An Observation...

So what's new?

If you look through our pages each week, you'll know. Better yet, if you go to our new website at www.theCurrent.press, you may find things of interest which will take place between the publication dates of our print edition.

In what we like to call a great work in progress, our website is getting better and better. You can not only view our online edition of what you see in print each Wednesday, but you may see photo galleries of community events, reports of public meetings as they happen, local sports scores and updates within a short amount of time following the final whistle, and so much more.

And did you know you can sign up to receive breaking news through your email or by text?

For area businesses, we are in the process of fine tuning the ability to publish your ads in print, as always, and also give you the extra boost, circulation and distribution of an amped up online presence, through our website.

Soon, we will offer a Facebook page, to compliment our website, giving us the ability to let Facebook users know when they need to check our website for something local, something breaking, and, pardon the pun, something Current.

When I say our new website is easy to navigate, believe me, I mean easy. How do I know? Let's just say I have made great strides in the past eight years

It hasn't been that long ago, I first used a laptop. Or Facebook. Or an iPhone.

So if I can actually go on to our website, view the stories and photos from our area, post late breaking articles of interest, take a photo with my phone and immediately create a photo gallery on our website, create and edit a new item on the website, and then send that same website story to your email, text or Facebook, then believe me when I say, you, too can do it.

We have experienced some hurdles along the way. And we thank you for your patience. We believe we are over the proverbial hump. 

We also want to remind everyone we are still at 304 East State Line in Fulton, where we have been located since 1959. The auction held June 30 confused some folks, and we understand how that could happen. The building in which we are located is for sale, yes. We are currently leasing the building for one year, and that lease we have will be honored regardless of who owns the building.

While after that year, we may not be located at 304 East State Line, we WILL be here. The simple fact is, with modern technology, less space is needed to produce a newspaper. 

Prior to the auction, which resulted in the selling off of a number of items accumulated through the combining of The Hickman Courier, The Hickman County Gazette and The Fulton Leader, I did walk through the rear portion of our building, no longer used by our staff.

The walk-through was bittersweet.

An area just through the double doors, which once separated the news room from the production department, was where my first work station was located, a desk, and a little contraption with a small screen illuminated with an eerie green glow when letters were typed. 

Before beginning the typesetting of a news story, I had to enter codes a half a mile long, designating how wide to set the columns, how much space I wanted between each line of type, the font I wanted to use and the size of the type. Every...single....time.

To my left then, was a dryer, of sorts, actually a high wattage bulb, encased by plywood, and "chicken wire" bent over the top. That was where the long pieces of typed articles for that day's paper, were placed, after they were streamed from a processor, at least I think it was a processor. I only know the long streams of narrow paper came out wet. The chicken wire dryer was draped with numerous strips, all day long.

Just past the dryer was a waxer, which is where those strips were coated with sticky wax on their back side, then trimmed and eventually placed on a sheet of lined paper, exactly the size of a newspaper page.

The pages were displayed on slanted, draftsman type tables, and each of those strips, as well as advertisements were manually placed on the page.

Headlines were produced separately, on a smaller version of the huge machines operated by two to three typesetters.

Once the pages were complete, they were "shot" with an enormous camera, negatives were created, and then a driver drove the pages to our printer.

Entry to the darkroom was gained through a revolving door, to insure no light entered the room in the processing of pages, or a roll of film submitted by a reporter.

The auction cleared away a good portion of the excess equipment and furnishings of bygone days.

One person who attended the auction, had worked during college days at The Fulton Leader, in advertising. We had a conversation following the auction, as I, too had moved from my proofreading and typesetting position, into the advertising department, when he was part of the staff.

He jokingly suggested that "no telling how many different specimens of DNA could be found on those" slanted tables, as we then had to also produce each ad manually, painstakingly slicing apart each line or graphic for an ad, waxing and grouping the parts together. 

The "x-acto" knives we used with their razor sharp blades to separate the ad's content, I believe were probably meant for surgical procedures, and one slip could result in a quick dash to the first aid kit for bandages.

While we continue with "what's new" here at The Current, we thank you, our readers and advertisers for continuing to give us the opportunity to report what's new in Clinton, Columbus, Cayce, Crutchfield, Hickman, Fulton, South Fulton, Dukedom and Water Valley.

Visit our new website, where you can also sign up for a free trial subscription.

Stop by our office, give us a call at 270-472-1122, fax us at 270-472-1129, or email us at news@thecurrent.press.

We will be right here.