Caxton printers play an integral part in making sure ordinary citizen voices are heard
The Caxton printer tour showed me the 'behind the scenes' of the production of a newspaper.
Journalist Asanda Matlhare writes:
The Caxton printers’ visit last week made me understand the importance of deadlines and teamwork.
My colleagues and I went on a tour where thousands of Caxton Newspapers are printed daily, and witnessed the work that goes into printing the newspapers and the number of people required in the process of publishing them.
We were welcomed by the general worker and part-time ‘printer tour guide’ Dennis Fernandes who took us to an orange-lit, cold room with heavy machinery called the gatekeeper. This is the most critical phase of the making or breaking of the newspaper because if there are mistakes that the editorial or layout team did not pick up and were beyond the printer’s control, it will be printed.
According to Fernandes, this is where the gate keeper at Caxton printers liaises with a gate keeper from other newspaper branches after the layout process is complete, and essentially when the paper is ready for printing. Fernandes also added that cyan, magenta, yellow and k (black) were important process colours as they could produce other desired colours when mixed together.
Next to the gate keeper room is the paper making department, and this is where the paper goes after undergoing the burning plate process and where the newspaper is measured for the correct length, height and width. This room produces 10 000 copies per hour during printing and where some copies are discarded because they were not printed properly or the computer which operates the machinery has malfunctioned.
Last but not least, we visited a room equivalent to the size of a hall which was full of packers who were chatting away and ensuring the various newspapers had the relevant advertisement material and were ready for distribution in Johannesburg.
This experience was an eye-opener for me because I had no idea that much work and effort were required to print daily and weekly newspapers across the country.
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