The Sharon Advocate, 1971-72 - video

[Dave Hughes]

Despite its limitations in quality - being silent and shot on 8mm film - this video offers a fascinating glimpse into the production of this Massachusetts newspaper with a circulation of 3,000.

I particularly enjoyed the "mat advertisement production" and the huge flat-bed press.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0wtZ9Y5z_Y

Digitized video of 8mm silent movie film showing how the Sharon Advocate was published each week from collecting the information including: the news and advertisements, having reporters collect new stories, photographing events, typing up the copy, using the Linotypes to create the print in columns, creating the titles using hand-set type, having the pictures engraved, and mat advertisement production, composing each of the either 8, 10 or 12 pages in the newspaper, making proofs for the proofreader to check, printing the paper on the flat bed press and folding the pages into the final edition of the newspaper. Finally, the Editor and Owner Walter Reeve doing the paperwork and accounting at the end of the week.  Delivery of newspapers to the stores and rolling the newspapers for Class 2 postage were not shown. Circulation at that time was approximately 3,000 papers/weekly.