Going to the stone

ShiningPath · **Posted:** Wed Nov 12, 2003 3:11 am

In a recent posting, Paul Wiggins said he was "stone sub." I'm guessing that he was checking what we in the midwestern U.S. call the "first-offs" -- the first papers off the press. I'm also guessing that "stone sub" relates to the term I once heard at the London Daily Telegraph: when the paper was sent to the press, the Londoners would say that the newspaper had "gone to the stone." I assumed that was a reference to the paper being pressed against a flat hard surface during the printing process. But I never knew for sure.
I was wondering whether anyone would be interested in sharing their own colloquialisms describing these newspaper processes:
A) A newspaper going to the press (our high school textbook called it "putting the newspaper to bed," but I've never heard that in real life)
B) A revision being made as scheduled (a "replate")
C) A revision being made urgently, based on breaking news or grievous error (In the southern U.S., I've heard that called a "sooner," which meant "the sooner the better." In the Midwest, it's been called a "hot replate.")

Finn DeSiecle · **Posted:** Thu Nov 13, 2003 11:49 pm

(A) We print at a remote site in another town, so we usually just say each zoned edition is "out" or "gone" -- meaning all the pages have been transmitted to the production building.(B) & (C) For us, a regular replate is a makeover; an urgent one is a "stop" or "stop-makeover" -- meaning the pressroom has to stop the run and mount that plate as soon as they get it.And re "stone": At a paper I worked at in the days before total pagination, a page in the process of being pasted up was "on the stone" (I don't know why; the compositors used the usual easel-like work surfaces, which weren't made of stone), and copy editors blue-penned changes for the compositors to make. If you were marking text to be cut, you usually went back to the newsroom afterward and told the slot, "That story turned out to be 10 lines over -- I had to cut it on the stone." That might be what Paul was referring to (although he'll probably check in later and give us yet a third explanation).

Gatekeeper · **Posted:** Fri Nov 14, 2003 12:29 am

Where I work, we call it the "press run" when checking the first copies that come off the press. We also use "resend" and "replate" and other, uh, less diplomatic terms when the unexpected happens.Gatekeeper-30-

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Sun Nov 16, 2003 5:30 pm

I am obliged to dictionary.com for the following definition. ..... (Print.) A stand or table with a smooth, flat top of stone, commonly marble, on which to arrange the pages of a book, newspaper, etc., before printing.
The physical stone went with the introduction of linotype machines but the term remained.
Referring to the compositing area as the stone was general practice in New Zealand and Australia before the days of direct editorial input, a reflection of the close working relationship of the editorial staff and those wonderfully talented compositors.

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Sun Nov 16, 2003 5:34 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr> we usually just say each zoned edition is "out" or "gone" <hr></blockquote>
A similar piece of jargon says "We are off stone'', meaning the platemakers have no problems and it is time for a quiet beer.

KfitzR · **Posted:** Mon Nov 17, 2003 3:49 pm

Yep - back in the olden days of hot metal, the galleys were laid out on huge heavy black stone tables (had to carry the weight of all that lead). When a page was finished it was "locked up" with keys to tighten the form around the edge, then shoved off onto a steel-topped table called a turtle to go over to plate-making, where a blotter-type asbestos (I think) thing called a "flong" was put on top of it and subjected to huge pressure, giving an imprint of the page [which of course was backward]. The flong then was formed into a semi-circular shape, into which the plate was poured (hot metal again) and the metal plate went on steel rollers to the press where it was snapped in place by the really big guys who worked the pressroom.
Editing on the stone meant working on the metal type, and required an ability to read upside down and backward, as the compositor had the right-side-up position on the page.
And yes, I do remember the Kennedy assassination, but no, not the Lincoln one.

pzicari · **Posted:** Wed Nov 19, 2003 9:13 pm

I don't recall what we called the guy assigned to the makeup shift -- probably just "the late guy," but the job was reserved for those of forceful personality, because even after the world moved on to cold type, it took considerable grit to insist that a page would BY GOD be fixed before it went to Engraving. One of our last late guys had a truly stone-age look about him; he would have embraced "stone sub."

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