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The Nelson Photo News

 

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Focus on "Photo News"

On April 10, 1953, in the little North Canterbury farming township of Rangiora, an entirely new form of news presentation was born. The infant was "Rangiora Photo News", a fairly small buist lusty child which gave promise of great things for the future. The public quickly took it to their hearts

At the time, "Photo News" was unique in several respects. It was the first newspaper in New Zealand to present its news in photographic form and it was first in the field of litho-offset presentation of news. It was also unusual in that most of its equipment was designed and buist by its founder, Mr Robert Logan, journalist, photographer and printer. Today several newspapers and magazines use the offset process for printing their publications. Gisborne, a city with a population similar to Nelson, was selected as headquarters for Photo News" and in the next 13 years 'Photo News" magazines in New Plymouth, Wanganui, Nelson, whangarei, Rotorua and Tauranga were started by the Logan Publishing Company. As well it prints independent magazines for Hamilton and Napier.

Time has brought its changes. Black and white covers have given way to colour and recently the company moved into modern new premises in Gisborne. In this article we describe for you how "Photo News" is compiled and printed.

The majority of pix are taken by the local editor, Barry Simpson, who then processes the film, plans the layout, prints the pictures and writes the copy for the magazine before sending it to Gisborne for sub-editing and preparation for the process camera. The film so obtained is printed down to sensitized aluminium plates, eight pages at a time, and these are clamped into large offset presses for printing. Colour covers are printed on a smaller press.

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Editor, Barry Simpson, as seen through the camera of Peter Cooper, whose assistance and cooperation towards "Photo News" since we came to Nelson 6½ years ago has been invaluable Before taking up the editorship of "Photo News", Barry was for 14 years a journalist with "The Press", Christchurch, the last four as associate sports editor and rugby writer.

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The Logan Publishing Company's new premises in Gisborne

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Mr Robert Logan, founder and managing director.

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The voice that many engaged couples and newlyweds hear over the phone is that of Marie Simpson, "Nelson Photo News" social editor.

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Some of the first issues of "Rangiora Photo News", a 20-page magazine published weekly in 1953. Today, the company publishes more than 50,000 magazines a month.

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The magazines return to Nelson from Gisborne by N.A.C. aircraft. N.A.C.can be justly proud of its record in respect of "Photo News". In 80 issues, not once have the magazines missed a publishing date. Unloading the last issue from a freighter are Les Norncastle and Jim Goodger.

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Some of the 80-odd runners employed in Nelson, Stoke, Richmond and Motueka, to take your "Photo News" to you. These runners operate in the central Nelson area.

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Copy and pictures are laid in their final form of presentation on a light table

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Pages in groups of four are then rephotographed on to sheets of film in a process camera. It is during this process that the dot formation is built into the pictures. These dots (there are 1½ million of them on a black and white page, and 6 million on a colour cover) can be seen by viewing the printed pictures through a magnifying glass.

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Under subdued red lights, the sheets of film are then developed.

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"Fixed" against the light, a sheet of film bearing the image of the original photographs in negative form is removed for washing and drying.

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At this stage we will leave the processing of black and white pictures and visit our senior photo-lithographer, immersed in the depths of his darkroom exposing a set of transparency colour separations for a "Photo News" cover. Each colour picture is printed four tines, with red, blue, yellow, and black inks, which combine together to give a full range of colour tones. The four negatives which determine the density of each ink required to produce the final colour are known as separations.

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The colour transparencies pass through seven different chemical baths, each of them critical in temperature and time, before being fully developed and fixed. The baths are contained in a 16-foot fibreglass tub which is immune to corrosion from the chemicals

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A separation is scrutinised before being passed for printing. At this stage, colour and black and white processes join Both are now in negative form, and will be exposed on to plates for the printing process.

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In the plate-making machine, ah arc light of considerable intensity exposes the plate through the negatives.

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The plates are developed in a fibreglass tub by hand application of chemicals. They are now ready to commence printing.

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Preparing one of the black and white machines for printing.

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Printed sheets, containing eight pages on each side, whirl off a Crabtree press at a rate of 5000 impressions per hour.

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A view of the publishing room, with two women collating the six sections of a magazine at right. The assembled magazine then passes along a conveyor line, through a stapling machine (centre left) and finally through a three-knife trimmer, where it emerges to be counted at left.

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A view of the press room. In the foreground is a folding machine (which folds the printed sheets in to a 16 page section of a magazine), and at rear are, from left, the colour and two black and white printing presses.

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A colour printer clamps a plate into position before commencing a run.

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A consignment of magazines for Wanganui is wrapped and wire-tied before being air-freighted to their destination.