Rudolph Stocker, who began at the New York Times in October 1965, finally retired May 18 at the age of 78, well beyond Social Security eligiblity. He is the last hot type setter at the Times with the lifetime job guarantee.

Rudy Stocker

BJ printers had that same lifetime job guarantee, the brainchild of John S. Knight, that allowed computers into Ol’ Blue Walls and ushered out the smoking hot linotype machines.

I remember the day that, as Newsroom makeup editor, I escorted the last hot-type in BJ history to the engravers alongside Composing foreman Don Baker and printers Carl “Red” Neston and Ed Fobean in 1976.

Red died in 2004, Don and Ed in 2006. Unlike the linotypes, I’m still smoking hot at damn near 84.

Rudy operated a steampunk linotype at the Times. But he was adaptable. With the Times in the computer age he set ads on a Mac, using InDesign and PhotoShop. Old dog learned new tricks, as many did as the BJ.

Rudy was in the secret 9^th floor mini-Composing room the Times set up to put together its 1971 Pentagon Papers section, all done in secrecy.

Still, Rudy left the Times without a farewell party or speech. His decision.

If you want to read about the old codger, click on http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/02/insider/1966-2016-the-last-hot-type-printer-puts-down-his-tools.html?_r=1

First newspaper in America lasted 4 days

You think newspapers today have it tough?

Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, the first multi-page newspaper in America, was published Sept. 25, 1690 and was closed down four days later.

It was printed by American Richard Pierce of Boston and edited by Benjamin Harris, who had previously published a newspaper in London.

The paper contained four six by ten inch pages and filled only three of them.
The paper was shut down by the British colonial authorities because the government didn’t like what was in it.  

And authorities warned that no one could print without a license issued by the government.

America’s Founding Fathers made a free press the First Amendment to the Constitution to make sure that didn’t happen again.

Computer helped launch Barlett & Steele to stardom

In 1973 the Philadelphia Inquirer fed 100,000 pieces of information into a computer and proved that the Philadelphia justice system, particularly the prosecuting attorney, was engaged in a massive paper-shuffling system loaded with indiscriminate indictments.

It was the first computer-assisted series of stories in newspaper history.

Donald Barlett and James Steele won the 1973 Heywood Broun Award for their series on violent crime and the justice system quagmire. The pair went on to successful, four-decade investigative careers that included two Pulitzers for their Inquirer work and the magazine equivalent for their Time magazine projects.

Today, feeding information into computers to spot trends or glitches or anomalies is routine.