THE PUBLISHER’S DUTY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 189, 11 August 1931, Page 5

THE PUBLISHER’S DUTY.

Nothing Must Hold Up Delivery.

When the “Star” comes rippling off the mighty rotary press each afternoon another big department is galvanised into action. As the big machine begins to roar there are many workers in the office who have finished their labours, as far as that day’s issue is concerned, but it is only the beginning of a feverish rush for the publisher’s staff. To watch the big publishing room in action gives ones the impression at first sight that all is muddle and disorder. Men and boys are running about among tall stacks of “Stars,” still damp from the presses. Everyone is shouting to make himself heard above the sustained thunder of the machine. Closer inspection reveals that the hurly-burly is well organised. Every swift-moving man is working methodically, so that the motor-cars and motor trucks, throbbing impatiently outside, may be loaded withoutldelay. On these vehicles great bundles of “Stars” are rushed up and down the city to waiting boys, the agents and sub-agents in the distant suburbs, and the racing and sports grounds of the city. Street salesmen and boys with stands near the “Star” office are eager to grab up the first bundles, so that the}' may get out among the crowds thronging the pavements, where a ready demand awaits the early editions. Only a few minutes after the machines have been set going the stacks of “Stars” are enormous, but these pillars of newsprint melt away under the eager hands which seize them and bear them off to service cars, trams, cars, buses and trains. Handcart to Motor Truck. There are lulls of brief duration as the afternoon flits by. Silence marks the changing of the plates on the rotary cylinders, and the first edition becomes the second, the second the third, with incredible swiftness. News which reaches the sub-editors two floors above, after the first edition has started on its way to the street, has been knocked into shape, set up on the linotype machine, corrected, embodied in

Like the news editor, in that he has “ eyes ancl ears ” in all parts of the province, the publisher is the centre of a network of information channels. It is his job to see the “ Star ” goes regularly to its thousands of destinations. Storms and floods must not prevent delivery. Hence, elaborate plans are made to meet every emergency, and even a general dislocation of transport services must be overcome when necessary. How well this was done on the occasion of the railway strike is a recent memory.