TIP at UGA's Media course students visit Athens' daily newspaper

Article by Madeline McCallum and Alex Gheorghe/ Photos by Ellie Solomon
M&M Staffers

On a Friday afternoon field trip to the Athens Banner-Herald office, 18 Duke TIP students filed into the brightly colored lobby, waiting to see how a newspaper is operated and created.

They were met by Amanda Burnett (pictured, left), the marketing manager for the newspaper. She greeted everyone with a warm smile and explained what they would be doing on the tour.

She works with the rest of the media services team in the advertising department, which is on a separate floor than the newsroom. “We spend more time here than we do at home,” she said.

On the first stop of the tour, Burnett took the students to the advertising floor and explained the importance of advertising and also included some history about the 17 year old building. She said that the newspapers, the Athens Herald and the Southern Banner merged in 1921, and that in 1965, they newspaper also had an afternoon addition called the Athens Daily News. In 2001, it changed to only putting out a morning paper.

The Banner-Herald, owned by Morris Communications, now publishes one paper every morning, magazines, and a new smaller newspaper called Jake that is geared towards the younger generations.

“What we print in our paper reflects us, so we try to do a good job,” Burnett said.

Burnett led the students upstairs to the newsroom, which had a faint smell of coffee and was much quieter than the ads department. Here the journalists and photographers worked, writing features and putting together news stories.

Next, the students gathered around a table in the “paste-up” room where Burnett described how they used to cut and put together a newspaper using paper, negatives, and metal roller that acts as a stamp.

They bind up all of the old newspapers and put them in books, which are kept in the “morgue”, a really tall room with a large ladder. Adding to the historical value of the Herald-Banner building, the students got to see the gigantic old cameras that were connected to their own dark room.

Perhaps the most fascinating part of the whole visit was the trip to the printing room, where at least 330 papers were printed a minute. Eugene and Chuck, who have been working with the two million dollar printing press for 20 years, were busy at work making sure that the colors and rollers were properly lined up.

“They are experts about what they do in their job,” Burnett said. As she was talking, the printing press was flying, spitting out paper after paper. According to Burnett, 65,000 pounds of black ink will be used this year, along with 40,000 pounds of color ink.

“They’ll probably go through one to two thousand papers before they can actually send them out the door,” she said.Ink is not the only thing that The Athens Banner-Herald has to buy in large quantities.

With 27,000 papers circulated each year, you can only imagine how much paper they need. “We don’t tell them we only want three rolls. No. They fill up and 18-wheeler,” Burnett said.

After the papers land on the conveyor belt, hot off the press, workers take them and stack them on pallets. Then the inserts are put in and the papers are boxed up. The boxes are put in their assigned dock, waiting for the carriers to take them out in the morning.

Even if the power went out and the printing press turned off, the Athens Banner-Herald would still find a way to get the news out. They now have a Web site, onlineathens.com, where they can post more pictures and videos.

“We pay premium charge so we can make sure we get the paper out,” Burnett said.

As the Duke TIP students filed out of the door and into the parking garage, they were busy chattering away about the interesting visit.

Burnett told them to cherish their writing skills, which were very valuable.

"We need your help to stay alert and make sure that everyone can still get the news.”