Several weeks ago on the same day, two long-time staff members came to talk with me about their jobs here at the paper. Both have worked for the paper for over 40 years! One will retire the end of March next year and the other wants to reduce her hours to half time after the first of the year. We can hire people to fill these positions, and they would probably bring some new ideas and ways of doing things that we hadn’t thought of before. But there’s no replacing experience and institutional memory.
Looking back on our shared careers here at the paper caused me to think about all the changes we have seen here at the N-G in that time. In 1984, when these two people came to work here, we had only one PC, which managed our subscription list. Bookkeeping was done using a system of ledger cards for each account, and journal sheets. Payments and paychecks were hand-written. Our reporters still typed stories on IBM Selectric typewriters. There was a computerized system that scanned the typed pages and converted them into photo-ready newspaper columns, which stuck onto blank page sheets with hot wax. Photo prints had to be reshot to produce the line screen necessary for printing.
I was still the advertising manager when these ladies started working here. At that time, we would take the physical ad pasteups out to our customers for proofing, being careful not to lose any of the bits of ad copy and illustrations that were waxed onto the layout paper. Today, of course, we create a PDF file of the finished advertisement and email it over to the client.
Besides the changes in our technology, the paper saw other changes that affected these two key employees. They helped the paper move from a Wednesday afternoon publication time to Wednesday morning, with mail subscribers getting the paper the same day it was on the street. They were both instrumental in the creation and success of our Weekender paper, which ran from 1989 to 2015. They were there when our first website went live in 1997.
Both of these staff members were here and lived through a building addition in 1987. Large chunks of wall and poured concrete had to be jackhammered down to provide internal access to the new space. They endured the dust and the noise. They were here during the derecho of 2012 when we didn’t have power for four or five days, and Covid, when we worked partially from home and tried to keep our distance from each other in the office.
Both of these women had children – two each – during their time working at the paper. Both managed being working wives and moms, and balanced their responsibilities here with their family needs.
One thing I’ve been grateful for the entire time I’ve worked at the paper is the fact that almost everyone we hired developed a sense of ownership of their job and a sense of responsibility for the paper’s success. These two ladies have shown that over and over in the four decades that each has been a part of the organization.
Lori Hamilton and Gay Lea Goodbar, you have made such a difference at The News-Gazette. I appreciate your dedication and your contributions toward making the paper what it is today. Thank you, both!
