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News

Bringing news to UH 

Two-man crew offers detailed glimpse 
into the newspaper-printing process

CHRIS ELLIOTT
The Daily Cougar

Their shifts begin at midnight and technically end at 8 a.m., but ultimately the guys down at the UH printing plant can't leave their posts until all 10,000 copies of The Daily Cougar have made it through the press and are ready to be delivered.

The two-man team consists of printing supervisor Bill Wallas, a 20-year veteran in the printing business and his right -- hand man Johannes Fields, the offset press helper. 

Wallas said he has been working at the UH printing plant long enough to appreciate its technological upgrades in the printing process and the recent improvement of the publication's ability to meet it's 12:30 a.m. deadline, because that means he and his partner are more apt to have a shorter and more efficient night on the job. 

"Once we finish printing, then we have to deliver the Cougar. Jo drives the pickup and I've got the cart. We've been delivering the paper for about a year and a half. Before then, it was students. But at that time we never got the paper early. We would get the paper at about 2 a.m. In the old-fashioned times it would take about two hours before we could put it on the press."

The old-fashioned times Wallas referred to were not that long ago. It has been approximately three semesters since The Daily Cougar upgraded the process through which it sent its paper to the printing plant. It kicked aside the prehistoric method of using a camera to make the plates for the newspaper, and embraced its new ability to send the paper electronically in a PDF file and burn the plates using a new machine that is connected to the network. 

Wallas said the old-fashioned method of making the plates took about two hours, while the new method takes 20 minutes at most. He also said that this semester, he's been receiving the paper earlier than ever before.

"The Cougar is doing a hell of a lot better at getting the paper to us on time," Wallas said. "About two years ago, we would never get the paper around 12:30 or 1 a.m. It'd be about 2:30 a.m., 3 a.m. or sometimes 4 a.m. That was rough. I guess they didn't understand how much it took to get the paper out. We really do appreciate the Cougar getting it to us early now though."

Both Wallas and Fields agree that things have gotten better at the printing plant in the last couple of years, but there's one problem that probably won't be solved for a while. 

"We have problems with the printer all the time -- almost every night," Wallas said. "It's a normal thing. It really doesn't make any difference how many pages the paper is. The press itself is an old machine. I'll take a guess and say it's probably about 40 years old. That's an old press. The main problems we have are with the water, the rolls and sometimes with the paper. There are different mills that they buy paper from and some of the paper is better than the others. Sometimes the paper might break. It might jam. Some problems take 30 minutes to correct. Others might take two hours to correct."

Wallas, who's worked for the Greensheet, Forward Times, Greater Houston Publishers and Memorial Publishing Company, said the printer is behind the times, but it could be worse.

"I've worked with new presses. Yeah buddy! We can only do about 10,000 on this press," Wallas said. "With the newer presses you can do about 30,000 an hour or 40,000 an hour. At the Chronicle, their presses are not new, but they can do about 100,000 an hour. Man, those are nice presses. And it's all panel. All you have to do is stand there and push buttons. Everything here is manual.

"We have rolls that we have to put down on the plates that you put on the press. One is that water roll. The other one is the ink roll. On the new presses if you want to put the rolls down you just press a button. On this press, if you want to put the rolls down you've got to pull a handle. That's the manual part of it. It's not that bad though."

Working with the 40-year-old printer may not be a walk in the park, but it's a manageable job, Wallas said. But if there's something that both Fields and Wallace can't stand, it's The Daily Cougar's inserts -- those dreaded inserts

"We do those inserts by hand," Fields said. "That gives us a longer night. There are some ladies that help us that come in at about 4:30 or 5 a.m., and we'll get together. But by the time they get here, we would have already started inserting. It takes about two to three hours to do all of the 10,000 papers.

"It's kind of difficult, but we get together and knock it out. It's not one of my favorite things to talk about or even do."

Wallas had a stronger choice of words.

"That's something I hate," Wallas said. "It really is man. If you guys get it to us about 12:30 a.m. and we don't have any problems with the printer, we'll be through by 3 a.m. If you guys get it to us at the same time and we have to do inserts, that's a problem right there. We're going to definitely be late."

Late by their standards is around 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. because of the hours of their shift. Fields and Wallas have mixed feelings about their awkward business hours.

"Now, I like it. I don't know about Jo, but I like it," Wallas said. "Every since I've been here, the shift has been from midnight to 8 a.m. Except for one time we changed over to 4 a.m. to noon."

Dreary-eyed and apparently tired, Fields gives his take on the night shift he and Wallas share.

"I'm just not used to working 12-8 a.m.," Fields said. "Sometimes you just can't get used to working it no matter how long you've been on the shift. It's been a while now since we've been back to working 12-8 a.m. I guess I'm just a busy guy. This shift is still difficult for me."

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