Times Colonist Newspaper Tour

submitted by Shelly D

A group of students toured the Times Colonist paper in Victoria January 31/07 (a field trip to compliment the newsy V-Class at Ebus Academy). It was very interesting to have talked with an editor and reporter and learn how to work with a "dummy" page. This is a page that is set up as a template for the editor to work from when he chooses stories, photos and advertising. He then "copies and pastes" them in place just like coordinating pieces of a jigsaw puzzle so everything fits snugly. This of course is all done using a computer.

The Times Colonist subscribes to a larger organization, like Can Wes Press, where lots of other newspapers share their reporters' stories and photographs world wide. The editor then chooses which ones are applicable or interesting to help sell his paper to attract the interest of his readership. There are several editors working for the one newspaper, they each have an assigned section of the paper. The editor also needs to be very creative with words when selecting a title for an article, something that will stand out or catch the readers interest.

We viewed the "film" room where the lights were yellow as the film is light sensitive. No longer are there word or letter tiles to be laid out in plates but now everything is automated and computerized. Once the editor is finished with constructing his page, he sends it to the film room via computer where somehow the machines burn the images and text onto aluminium plates. What happens is that the thin aluminium plates or sheets (see digital photo of the tour guide holding up the used one in the press room) which are about 18" X 24" have a light film over top. The machine "burns" in the images/text leaving very tiny holes in the metal. Then ink is applied to the plate and it is printed on paper. This is all done inside machines very much like a Xerox machine.

We then visited the printing presses in action. This was amazing! The TC uses rolls of paper that are made of 10% recycled paper, anything more and the paper would not be strong enough to go through the heavy duty rollers in the machine. The rolls are 16 kilometres (or 10 miles) long. They cost $1000.00 each and the TC uses 22 rolls every day. The rolls weigh as much as a Volkswagen Beetle car and are manoeuvred to the machines on "flat deck" like cars via a track. There were several turntables at each intersection of the tracks. This allows for the rolls to move to the machines to be loaded.

The press does their first printing at 10:30 pm and a second printing at 2 a.m. The earlier printing is for papers heading up Vancouver Island. Late breaking news can make the second paper if it is newsworthy like a building fire at 11 pm and local residents will have the benefit of this current news in their paper. It may mean only a change to the front page but a change that keeps the news current.

The ink is made of several natural products like vegetable oil and soy. The three primary colors are used in the ink and if you take a magnifying glass to the paper you might see that the ink is a multitude of coloured dots even though it looks black with the naked eye.

Papers arrive at various destinations:
- news stands
- BC ferries
- residences
- rural routes (motorized route due to long driveways like ours, a tube at the end of the driveway is erected for the paper by the paper company).
- up island residents
- stores, hospitals, businesses, etc.

The TC employs approximately 300 people. Not all working at the same time of course. For instance the sports people work later in the day because the games are played later and the results arrive later. The editors have a few meetings each day to decide and re-evaluate what is expected to be produced for the next paper printing (news changing all the time). The paper runs 24 hours per day. They also print flyers and Christmas is their most busy time for flyers. The bulk of their revenue is based on advertising and then selling papers. The TC is also available on-line and with their subscription a person has access to other paper company's like the National Post.

One outstanding observation was that I noticed the staff at the TC were seemingly happy in their workplace:-)

At the end of the tour the children were sent home with their own papers. Now we have been inspired to look at the paper with a new perception:-))