The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, December 03, 1987, Image 19

The Battalion., December 03, 1987, Image 19

Image provided by: Texas A&M University

About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 1987)

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Newspaper Page Text3:08 p.m. - The managing editor runs printouts of synopses of today’s top Associated Press stories. The AP is the only wire service that the Battalion subscribes to. 4:17 p.m. - A sign goes up on the editor’s door reading: “It’s 4 p.m. BUDGET is in session: Do Hot Disturb this Most Sacred Meeting.” The Editorial Board, consisting of all editors, meets behind closed doors to discuss what stories and photos will go into the next day’s paper. The board members review the top AP stories for the day and choose the most important ones to be published. They also determine which stories warrant front page exposure. Finally, the editors decide whether any current issues merit an editorial, to be written by one of the board’s members. 4:49 p.m. - Immediately following budget, the night news editor begins laying out pages (in layperson terminology that means figuring out what’s going where) for tomorrow’s paper. She is joined at 8:30 p.m. by an assistant night news editor. 8:14 p.m. - The opinion page editor descends into the basement of Reed McDonald to wrestle with a pagination computer—one that allegedly allows her to put the page together on a screen and print it out in its finished form. 6:01 p.m. - Copy editors arrive and, under the night news editor’s supervision, begin reading everything that will be in tomorrow’s paper. They also put headlines on stories at this time. All in all, every story is read by at least three editors, and sometimes as many as five or six editors before it appears in the paper. All pictures for tomorrow’s paper are also due at this time. 6:08 p.m. - Page 2, the opinion page, is finished and ready to be pasted down by production workers. 6:17 p.m. - After along day’s work, the editor and managing editor bid the newsroom farewell. 7:30 p.m. - Production workers arrive to begin pasting up tomorrow’s paper. 8:00 p.m. - The sports editor begins laying out and editing stories for his pages. 10:00 p.m. - The make-up editor begins giving the Battalion a final look. Before the night is over, he or she will read every bit of copy that goes into the paper, and check the finished pages to make sure they are layed out correctly. 10:36 p.m. - 38th irate caller asks if its too late to submit some information for the next day’s “What’s Up” column. 1:30 a.m. - The production workers and make-up editor go home. In a short seven hours, The Battalion will go to press and the process will begin again. 8:37 a.m. - As the last staggering staff member leaves the newsroom, a stranger approaches and innocently asks: “What do I with a letter to the editor?” And then seconds later... “And by the way, what are you guys doing up here at this hour?” Clockwise from left: Make-up editor Richard Williams is the last to check the paper before it goes to press. Throughout most of the day, the newsroom is full of students struggling to meet deadlines. In the daily budget meeting, editors are deciding which stories will run in tomorrow’s