The Star: July 05, 2018

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10 CELEBRATING 150 YEARS 1868 – 2018 Connecting Christchurch for 150 years The Star A great industry Sub-editor Ross Kiddie is The Star’s longest serving staff member. But he started his newspaper career in a far different role I STARTED at the Christchurch Star on January 21, 1971, in the printing industry as an apprentice hand compositor/typographer. Ultimately, my job would be collating galleys of lead slugs and laying them out into columns using large broadsheet formes that were the newspaper pages. In those days the composing room was a mix of both machine operators and hand compositors, the machines were the large line-casting Linotypes and Ludlows. Around 100 men were employed on the composing floor, part of around 450 staff at the time I started, and we were based in a purpose-built building in Kilmore St. I was part of an annual intake of apprentices and the mix of youth and experience made for major differences of opinion and, of course, humour. Almost everybody on the composing room floor had a nickname, most were types of animals. On my first day I was asked where I lived, I said: “Rolleston, on a farm.’’ The next question was: “What type of farm?’’ I said: “We breed horses.’’ That was followed by a statement – “your name is going to be Horse.’’ And from that moment on I joined a host of other creatures – Cat, Snake, Frog, Tadpole (Frog’s brother), Ant, Stork, and the list went on. It took time to learn the intricate skills needed to put the newspaper together. We were guided by the knowledge of the tradesmen and generally they were helpful. There was one real grumpy compositor – Charlie Campbell - he was strict and didn’t suffer fools, but if you appealed to his better nature you could learn a lot from him. Other notable mentors on the page make-up floor were my good friends Syd Cairney, Bernie Hammond and Cliff O’Brien. They were long-standing employees and very knowledgeable. The front, back and page 3 of the Christchurch Star each required two compositors, one at the top of the page and one at the bottom, it was a thrill to be chosen by one of the tradesman to work on any of those. Friday night overtime was always a certainty as we pieced together the huge Saturday paper, loaded with classified advertisements; often there were so many situation vacant ads that many had to be left out, we simply didn’t have printing capacity. Long queues of people lined the Kilmore St footpath on any given Ross Kiddie over the years (from left) with Ken Howat, Tom Keown; (centre) Neil Baker and James Mackenzie; (right) 2018 Mike Hansen. Saturday as they waited for the bumper edition to go on sale. As Friday evening work came to a close and the bosses had left, it was time to unwind at the New Albion Tavern, on Colombo St. The New Albion was a popular place for Star employees, and was the venue for the very rowdy, annual journalists v printers carol-singing contest on Christmas Eve. The Christchurch Star building was interconnected through an elaborate network of pneumatic Lamson tubes. Simply, they were vacuum-powered and cylindrical, and used for transporting canisters of copy from one department to another. On the composing floor a central copy box was the collecting point, and it was manned by the head of the department known as the printer. Brian Butts was in charge and he had Abe Mallouk as a deputy. The tubes were also great for sucking in Coca Cola cans, the apprentices often had a contest to see whose can would travel the longest distance before the clatter through the ceilings alerted Butts or Mallouk. Another trick was to place a smouldering piece of cloth beneath the tubes, smoke would also pass through from the composing room to any other department. That prank was often met with discontent from the head proof reader, Ray Dawe. In later years, Murray Wood and Barry Wendelborn took on the role as head printer. Compositor Wood was a comedian and prankster in his own right, he would often discretely flick his cigarette butt into the pocket of an apprentice’s apron, a garment we used to wear to protect our clothes, smoke was generally a good indication that fire was imminent. My worst experience was three months into my apprenticeship. As a junior, one of my jobs was to wheel the morning tea trolley from the cafeteria to the composing room. It was laden with two tea urns, buckets of cups, milk and sugar. It was heavy, and the wheels of the trolley obviously weren’t engineered for the weight. As I passed over the stairway on the first floor, one of the wheels suddenly broke off and the trolley over-balanced. I managed to save one tea turn but the other toppled down the stairs, spewing its contents; cups and sugar followed. The noise was so loud it even alerted editor Ben Mair who was located in a second floor office. The cafeteria lady, Heather Hatton, was furious, and the men were faced with a long wait for their morning tea before a replacement surfaced. As my apprenticeship came to a close I was assigned sole charge of the Star Sports which later became the Weekend Star. It was a small team headed by editor Alan Doney, with sub-editors Tony O’Brien and Tony Ford. Reporters Colin Bryant and Don (Scoop) Grady filed the copy. A young reporter Barry Clarke joined the team some time later as a sports reporter, today Clarke is Star Media’s editor-in-chief. The Weekend Star period was by far my most enjoyable period at the newspaper. It was a busy role, but one I embraced, the satisfaction gleaned from the time the paper rolled off the presses on Saturday evening was something rather special. Technology at that time was changing, computerisation was being introduced into newspapers globally. Simply known as cold type, phototypesetting spelt the end of the Linotype machines. Linotype operators were retrained and all the compositors learnt how to operate a Qwerty keyboard. Columns of type were produced on film paper which was then applied with a layer of wax and pasted onto graph sheets which became our newspaper pages. Hence the term paste-up evolved. Printing plates were created through another photographic process – photolithography - lead plates being replaced with aluminium. The Weekend Star was the first of the Christchurch Star’s publications to transfer to paste-up. Paste-up eventually gave way to full computerisation and with the creation of page-making programs, the days of typography were fast coming to an end, so I was then consigned to page make-up using a mouse and keyboard. Today, I’m employed as a sub-editor, but I prefer to see my job as having changed little, I create newspaper pages for Star Media’s raft of community titles and, of course, The Star. I’m a great believer in recognising those traditional typographical skills and transferring them into today’s technology. It’s a vibrant industry, and one which, every day, still presents new challenges. I wouldn’t have changed my career for anything. PHONE: 03 943 4523
The Star CELEBRATING 150 YEARS 1868 – 2018 11 Connecting Christchurch for 150 years Following in the footsteps As a daily newspaper Star reporters and photographers regularly won national journalism awards. The trend as a free newspaper has continued, with Canon and Pan Pacific Newspapers’ awards lining its trophy cabinet. This month The Star for the second year in a row took out the major accolades at the NZ Community Newspapers’ awards MANY OF THE country’s newspapers, magazines and websites, from paid dailies to free community titles, were vying for the prestigious NZ Community Newspapers’ awards which were held in Rotorua in mid-June. The Star triumphed, judged best allround newspaper and was also named the supreme winner across all categories - newspapers, websites and magazines - for an unprecedented second year in a row.. Said judge Jim Tully: “It may no longer be a daily but with Barry Clarke at the helm, The Star continues a tradition of hard-hitting reporting notable for pacey, direct, tight writing. The bold layout complements the punchy style”. Staff at Star Media, publisher of The Star, its website star.kiwi and magazine Kiwi Gardener were also recognised. Emily O’Connell was the winner of the best junior news journalist category for her work on The Star and Western News. Her portfolio included coverage of the battle Lady Wigram Retirement Village residents were having over heavy trucks in the area. The issue exploded when rest home owner One of Martin Hunter’s great photos. John Tooby was recorded verbally abusing his elderly tenants over the issue. Julia Evans was runner up in the category for articles in The Star and Nor West News, while Sarla Donovan received special mention for her work on The Star, Pegasus Post and Bay Harbour News. Bridget Rutherford won the best feature/lifestyle journalist. Judge Stuart Howie said her article on a World War 2 veteran was a “ripping yarn, while she shows she is equally capable of turning her talents to a political feature and other human interest areas.” Martin Hunter was best feature/lifestyle photographer, his photo during the under 17 national cricket tournament at Lincoln earning special praise. He was also runner up in the best news photographer section. Gordon Findlater was runner up in the senior sports reporter category. Kiwi Gardener was best all round lifestyle magazine, Editor in Chief Barry Clarke (right) with Star Media’s news team (from left) Julia Evans, Ashleigh Monk, Sophie Cornish, Mike Hansen, Ross Kiddie, Emily O’Connell, Sarla Donovan, Georgia O’Connor-Harding, Bridget Rutherford, Gordon Findlater, Anan Zaki, Martin Hunter and Shelley Robinson. for the second year in a row. Said Tully, who also judged this category: “This quality magazine impresses at every level. The content is authoritative, informative and helpful, the visuals are excellent and the overall design is clean and competent.” Kiwi Gardener was also runner-up in the best front page category. star.kiwi was runner up in the best website category. Judge Claire Swallow said star.kiwi made great use of video as a key content type. The videos were focused on great footage and powerful story telling. Star Media general manager Steve McCaughan said he was proud of what had been achieved. “We strive for excellence every day, to inform, connect and entertain the audiences we serve. “These awards acknowledge our team’s efforts, passion and skill they bring every day to our business”. Earthquake coverage The Star won national and international recognition for its coverage of the February 2011 earthquake The Star was judged best community newspaper at the Canon Awards (NZ media) and at the PANPA awards - which covers print and digital in New Zealand, Australia and the Asia Pacific. Photographer Geoff Sloan was winner of the Canon news photo of the year and best photo essay for his coverage of the day the quake shattered Christchurch. Sloan and reporter Caroline King were the first media people to get to the collapsed CTV building in Madras St. Said Sloan: “It was chaos. There were people on top of the rubble shifting big roofing iron. I started to help them. After a while more people There were a lot of unsung heroes that day. They were regular people, going about their normal business one moment and then the next they were in the middle of a tragedy. arrived to help. I got back down and started taking photos.” Sloan then spotted a survivor, Anne Malcolm, being taken out of the rubble. King, nearby, began comforting her amongst the chaos and meelee. “I went into automatic mode and started to shoot. It was all surreal. It was bit like a movie set. “When Caroline and I were walking down Madras St towards the CTV building we were careful not to get too close to buildings. They then saw the CTV building had collapsed. “I don’t remember what I said to Caroline. It was total disbelief. I was in a bit of shock. It’s just like you go through the motions. “There were a lot of unsung heroes that day. They were regular people, going about their normal business one moment and then the next they were in the middle of a tragedy. Unbelievable,” said Sloan.
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The Star: July 05, 2018

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