In the GNM Archive collection are two production bills that were displayed in the composing room (or foundry) of the Observer, where the pages were set out and the metal moulds from which the paper was printed were created. They belong to a collection donated by Tristan Jones, managing editor of the Sunday newspaper from 1953-1975. They give a fascinating insight into how the newspaper was produced after the second world war during an era when newsprint was rationed and the Observer’s readership was growing.
The first, dated 11 October 1947, lists the times that the editions of the paper had to be off stone (ready to print) from the foundry. As a Sunday newspaper the Observer did not have its own printing presses at its offices (at Tudor Street near Fleet Street, London) and it is likely to have agreed slots on shared presses with the Sunday Times at nearby Printing House Square. For each edition it lists the time the last page, usually the sports page, had to leave the foundry to be taken the short distance to the presses.
If the first deadline of 5.20pm was not met the paper would fail to be on the train which connected with the ferry to Ireland, which left at 6.30pm. The bill reminds the compositors that there “is no alternative route or later train”. Four more editions were printed, which with the exception of those destined for London, were loaded onto trains to be then transferred to wholesalers for distribution across the UK. The last edition of the paper left the foundry at 3am for the south coast, the bill notes: “If we miss the trains we lose sales in a most important area”. It is initialled J.E.B – presumably John E Berridge who was general manager until 1953.
In 1947 the Observer editor was Ivor Brown, but David Astor, son of the proprietor and a Whitehall-based captain in the Royal Marines, had already begun modernising the paper and overseeing operations in his spare time. He finally became editor in August 1948. Under his editorship, the Observer was beginning to gain a reputation for being a writers’ paper with contributors like Vita Sackville-West, Philip Toynbee, John Davy and later Kenneth Tynan. It was Kenneth Obank, the paper’s chief sub editor (who had joined the paper in 1945 coming, like Astor had, from a stint on the Yorkshire Post) who made sure that the writers made their copy deadlines so that the compositors could output the pages in time.
The second bill in the GNM Archive collection is believed to be from late 1949. It lists the different pages of the Observer for either an eight or 10 page first edition (the maximum it could print due to newsprint rationing which was in place between 1940-1957) and when each page had to leave the building for the print site. Features and review pages such as books and weekend had until 5pm on Friday and then copy was supposed to get to the subeditors and then compositors in a steady flow finishing with main news and sport being off stone last at 5.15pm and 5.20pm on Saturday. In 1949 all Saturday football matches would have started at 3pm so the first version of the match reports would have just made the first edition.
Whether the paper was eight or 10 pages depended on how much advertising was sold. As the paper was limited in size advertising could be sold at a premium. Newspapers were the favoured choice for advertisers until the advent of commercial television in 1955. A front page and sports page of a 10 page Observer from 5 February 1950 show how much news was covered in limited space.
Observer front page 5 February 1950
Observer sports page 5 February 1950
It is likely that the bill is a summary of a five page production schedule memo from David Astor, dated April 1949, also held in the GNM archive collection. It shows how far in advance copy had to arrive with the section editors. Articles for the books page had to be submitted by noon on Wednesday, the women’s page content for Thursday and the profile was planned up to three weeks in advance. It notes that there will be breaking news but adherence to the schedule will “enable such last- minute changes as are necessary to be made with the least disturbance”.
A comparison with production schedules over 60 years later reveals differences and some similarity in print and edition deadlines. There is no longer a composing room and pages are electronically sent to the Guardian’s two print sites in London and Manchester. The newspapers are no longer distributed by trains but by articulated lorries under contract to get the papers to wholesalers by set times.
The Observer still prints five editions. The Irish edition is printed at 7.30pm on presses in Northern Ireland. The first edition is scheduled to be printed two hours later than in 1947 and just at the London site. On 17 January 2016 it was printed at 7.51pm. This is a small print run but means, as is the tradition, that the Sunday paper is available if readers want to buy the paper at main line stations on their way home from an evening in central London. The Scottish edition is printed at 7pm and distributed from the Manchester print site. The second edition deadline for both sites is 8.30pm, the third is 10.30pm, the fourth is 12.40am and fifth is 1.30am - an hour and a half earlier than the 1947 3am deadline. The biggest print runs are the second and third editions, which have the widest geographical distribution in England and Wales. The south coast gets the fourth edition, printed in London. The final edition is distributed in central London and Manchester.
Today’s Observer is much bigger. It is in sections and the news and sport on 17 January consisted of 54 and 22 pages respectively. The separate New Review section covering culture of up to 50 pages is printed on early Saturday morning after the final edition of the Guardian has been printed. The Observer Magazine is printed six to eight days before publication depending on the number of pages and Observer Food Monthly or Tech Monthly nine days prior to publication.
Like 1949 not all pages arrive at the print site at the same time. News sent 35 pages, which included less time critical news such as business, news features and comment between 4-5pm on 17 January and then 10 between 5-6pm and the final nine including the front page between 6-7.43pm. Sport sent 10 pages between 5-6pm, these will tend to be more feature style pages and five between 6-7.43pm. Included in this batch will be afternoon match reports. The last six pages went at 7.43pm and would have included match reports that kicked off at 5pm along with the sports front page. Revisions to pages are made (new articles added, stories updated, headlines and pictures changed) between editions by the news and sport editor and on 17 January the largest of these were 24 made between the second and third edition going to press. An additional page was added in the sport section taking the total up to 22 for the fourth edition.
Observer news front page 17 January 2016 fifth edition
Observer sport front page 17 January 2016 fourth edition
With thanks to Stephen Pritchard, Peter Mulcahy and Matthew Hancock.
Further reading:
- The Observer - A short history of the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper by Stephen Pritchard, 2001
- David Astor and the Observer by Richard Cockett, 1991
- Researching the history of the Observer
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Second world war and paper rationing
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Vita Sackville West’s notebook
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From first word to final edition
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The nightly miracle
The catalogue for the GNM Archive is available to browse here. Please see this page for further information on the archive collections and how to access them.
