I’ve always felt like newsrooms are magical places. But I have never experienced the thrill of being in a newsroom that was about ready to launch a new, daily, subscriber-based newspaper in a major metro market until last night.
It was beyond amazing to work with so many people to literally make a new newspaper: the Long Beach Register.
The Long Beach Register’s chief photographer, Jeff Gritchen, took these awesome photos last night:
LB Register editor Paul Eakins, designer Matt Murray and a nerd named Rob all look over assistant editor Jody Collins’ shoulders as she makes final changes to a page.
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Matt holds up the proof page of a double-truck from the first issue’s main story package, as Jody laughs at Matt’s description of the layout’s awesomeness.
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Paul and I read over a proof of the front page.
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Once all of our pages had been sent to the production department, we all headed over to watch the plates being made. There was some high-fiving.
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One of the plates being taken to the press.
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Dork heading to the press room.
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Plates from our centerpiece package on the press.
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Press operator working on sports front page.
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The first copies coming off the press.
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Looking over one of the first copies with our senior designer Helayne Perry and LB Register publisher Ian Lamont.
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Enjoying the first paper with Matt and senior writer Greg Mellen.
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Ian shows off our front page and sports page.
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Paul, Freedom Communications president Eric Spitz and Ian look over the first edition.
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A pressman examines the paper.
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A group of us from all different parts of our company wait for the press to start again as lots of still cameras and video cameras capture the moment.
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Eric shows me something on his phone, which — BTW — seems to be big enough to hold a full-sized image of our paper.
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Paul holds up a stack of our very first papers.
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And here’s Jeff, the great photographer who took all of these photos, holding up our paper.
What a night! I’m so proud of everyone who worked on this, and honored that I got to be around their creativity, talent and spirit as we did this.
Now let’s do it again today. Only without the TV cameras.
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Here’s a video that is from the Register’s website about the first night of production for the Long Beach Register from Mark Eades:
http://www.ocregister.com/video/c/1125998380/news/2615331843001/
Rob Curley 