With all the changes that were announced recently by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, there have been calls to our office wanting to know if The Weekly Vista is shutting down. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Vista is alive and strong.
It was recently announced that the four daily newspapers in Northwest Arkansas and the Democrat-Gazette would consolidate into one edition. That's a good thing to do and it brings about some efficiencies in the operation of the daily paper. That's something that is occurring in every business today.
That doesn't mean there wasn't some changes here at The Vista as long-time assistant editor Jenny DeShields is no long with the paper. We were really sad to see that happen.
Over the 40 years in the newspaper business, I have witnessed plenty of changes in the newspaper industry.
When I started in the early '70s, the paper in Junction City, Kan., was produced on Linotype machines that formed the letters in the type from molten lead. Advertisements were created by hand from already precast lead type. Ad artwork and logos were cast in lead.
Photographs were transferred from the paper photo to a piece of plastic using a red-hot needle that etched the picture onto the plastic plate.
It was hot, dirty work. I'm sure the EPA would be all over the poor air quality from the hot, molten lead.
The normal process in that day was for the editor to read the story, a copy editor looked at it, then a typist typed it onto perforated tape to run through the Linotype machine. The machine read the perforated code and mechanically created the lines of type. After that the galley of type was proofed and then there was a final page proof. Lots of hands and eyes look at those stories.
The paper was one of the last papers in Kansas to go to the offset printing process. In making that shift, we lost most of the Linotype and ad layout folks operators as well as pressmen. And through the process, which was more efficient, fewer people were required.
Then computers starting coming into play in the late 197os and more efficiencies occurred -- not only in how the papers were produced but in the number of people required to do it.
Change is something that happens in our everyday lives. I believe change is good, but, I must admit, I have difficulty keeping up the with the changes as computers drive more of what we do.
I believe newspapers are in the midst of a transition that will rely more on computers and less on the printed word. That might not occur in my lifetime, but it's coming.
I find a lot of value in the news products that we're producing. There isn't another news organization around that can produce the variety and depth of verified local stories that newspapers produce -- not radio, not television and not the Internet. We can all find national and international news just about everywhere, but if you want to know what local government is doing with your tax dollars, or what's going on in your child's elementary school, or what's developing in the Property Owners Association -- newspapers are your answer.
As the years go along there will be more changes. How we produce newspapers have change by leaps and bounds over the past 200 years. We can expect that trend to continue.
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My neighbor, Scott, stands 6-8, was a member of the 1994-95 Oklahoma State basketball team that went to the Final Four in Seattle, Wash. Other members of that team were Bryant "Big Country" Reeves and Randy Rutherford. That team will be honored at an OSU basketball game later this season.
And one of his coaches on that team was Bill Self, currently the head coach of the University of Kansas Jayhawks.
As a graduate of KU, I am a huge basketball fan. I like KU football, but that's a hit-and-miss proposition. However, hope spring eternal as KU has a new football coach who I hope turns that program around.
Now the same can't be said about the perennial college powerhouse that is KU basketball.
Scott has stayed close to Coach Self, who recruited him to OSU, over the past 20 years. So I was thrilled when he asked the grandson, Cole, and me to join his two sons, Mason and Owen, and himself for a recent game. He was able to get tickets through Coach.
After lunch in Lawrence and a stop at the sports shop to get some new KU apparel, we got to storied Allen Fieldhouse, which was opened in 1955 and is named for Dr. Forrest C. "Phog" Allen, who coached at KU for 39 years. Allen was KU's second basketball coach.
The first was Dr. James Naismith, who invented the game, and coached at KU from 1898-1907.
Some time in the near future, Naismith's original 13 rules of basketball will be on display at a new facility adjacent to Allen Fieldhouse. The handwritten rules were purchased by a KU graduate, David Booth, for $4.3 million.
Well, enough of that. The kids had a great time yelling and screaming as the KU players dunked the ball. They did the haunting "Rock Chalk" chant at the beginning of the game. The chant, by the way, was deemed by President Theodore Roosevelt as the best college chant in America.
KU beat Texas Tech on the day we were there. Afterwards, we all got to meet and talk with Coach Self in the players lounge as well as have our pictures taken with him. The boys got to sit in the the player's huge chairs and drink some Gatorade from the team's fridge. Life couldn't be better.
It was a long day, but everyone had a great time.
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Throne is managing editor of The Weekly Vista.
Editorial on 01/21/2015