Longtime News Employee Sees Numerous Changes

Technology Advances Force Newspaper Adjustments

— The 125 years of The Springdale News is tied to the longevity of the people who worked at the paper and owned it.

Members of the Stafford family owned the paper for 71 years and the Sanders family was associated with it for 36 years. It’s former editor Jim Morriss, however, who may have seen the most changes in the News.

Morriss, who worked for the News 54 years, saw changes that ranged from printing with lead type to producing digital versions of the newspaper.

Morriss started with The Springdale News when he was 13 as a printer’s devil. He worked part-time — full-time in the summers — under Ellis Stafford, son of the paper’s founder.

John Stafford, the first owner of The Springdale News, started as a printer’s devil at another paper, the Fayetteville Democrat. One duty of a printer’s devil was to collect old lines of lead type to be melted and reused. Johannes Gutenberg used similar metals when he invented movable type for his printing press in 1439.

“One of my duties was sweeping up,” Morriss said. “There were such big cracks in the floor that a lot of what I swept went in the cracks instead of in the dustpan.”

Other duties included melting lead, cleaning the press and proofing galleys, Morriss said.

The newspaper office was then on the south side of Emma Avenue, between Main and Holcomb streets.

Morriss gradually learned how to use the press, and started writing sports stories for the News. When he became the Springdale High School newspaper editor, he still held down his first job.

When he started studying journalism at the University of Arkansas, he continued with the News.

“I started delivering a route between Springdale and the university in my car,” Morriss said. “I covered Cave Springs, Elm Springs and Tontitown. I think that was the first motor route for the paper.”

When he finished school, he joined the News staff full-time as its only reporter. Two years later, he moved up to city editor and shortly after became managing editor.

Developing an interest in photography, Morriss brought on Charles Bickford as a photographer. The business needed a darkroom, however.

The News installed a new press on Mill Street in 1964, behind what is now First Security Bank. The bank had used those buildings while its office was under construction.

“There was a vault in one of the buildings,” Morriss said. “I asked Bickford if we could use it.”

The vault worked fine as a darkroom, Bickford said.

“We took out a wall to the women’s bathroom,” Bickford said. “We used that for everything that needed water. We developed in the vault.”

The shortcut to the newsroom, on the opposite side of Emma, led through Joyce Drug Store, then owned by Charles McKinney. McKinney later served 20 years as Springdale mayor.

“We used it all the time,” Morriss said. “They never complained.”

In the afternoon, the alley between the bank and the press building filled up with delivery boys, Bickford said. Eventually, all the routes were delivered from cars, however, the newspaper mainly used junior high boys after school.

The printing process was changing, as offset presses became cheap enough for newspapers. In the offset process, a metal plate is created with the image to be printed. Ink from the plate is offset to a rubber blanket before going to the paper.

Leroy Hendrix, who also worked at the paper more than 50 years, worked with the presses. The newspaper used a combination of linotype and offset, he said. Some color was added after the operation moved to the old Jones Terminal building on east Emma Avenue.

Morriss’ staff was growing. A Sunday edition was added in 1972. The paper gradually switched to paste-up pages, where headlines, stories and photos were printed, pasted on a page and photographed. The photos were used to make plates for offset printing.

Morriss credited Charlie Allison with creating a copy desk to read and correct news articles — a huge advance, he said. The late 1990s brought several changes, Allison said.

In 1989, digital cameras first became available. An employee of Collier’s Camera shop in Fayetteville, Elmo Sapwater, had access to one and used it to take a photo at a big Fayetteville trial for News reporter Mark Francouer, Allison said.

The digital picture was transmitted to the Springdale office over the telephone, the first transfer in Arkansas, Allison said.

Computers were coming into everyday use in the newsroom, Morriss said. The computer system, specially made for newsrooms, was used to print copy for paste-up, he said.

Technology also made for mistakes, Allison said. After the printing press moved to a new building on Lowell Road, a list of news stories was faxed from the Emma office to the press.

The fax used was in the advertising department and had fax numbers programed for single-button transmission. One button sent faxes to the press, one to competitor, The Northwest Arkansas Times. The Times is now a sister paper to the News.

“We accidentally faxed a list of our stories to the Times,” Allison said. “It was embarrassing.”

It also was an opportunity. A few weeks later, the staff purposely faxed a true list of news stories to the Times for three days. On the fourth, a list of imaginary stories was sent, including a visit by the vice president of the United States, Dan Quayle.

“We had them running all over town, trying to find all these stories,” Allison said.

When the newsroom moved to Lowell Road, technology continued to dictate changes. An Apple computer system ended paste-up, with designers creating a page at a time to be photographed. Eventually, the pages went straight to a machine that made plates for the press.

When Morriss retired in 2003, the entire paper was available in computer files. He left as executive editor with a staff of about 65. He still thinks about the future of newspapers, he said.

“I think the small-town papers will continue to be printed for years,” Morriss said. “They don’t have any competition. There is no other way for people to get those local stories.”

Eventually all papers will go digital, he said.

“It’s the future,” Morriss said.

The question is how long will newspapers be printed for large and medium-sized communities, he said. They need to find a niche with thorough local coverage large news organizations and TV stations can’t offer, he said. Newspapers have credibility bloggers and other Internet sources don’t have, he said.

“I think the owners of the News will print a paper as long as its possible,” Morriss said.

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