Went to visit the newspaper printing plant. Our neighbor, Esther, who is an events photographer has lots of connections in the paper business. One of the reporters for the daily newspapers, The Republikien, took us around the plant and explained the process from gathering and collecting information and writing the articles to the actual printing. There are many newspapers in Windhoek, published in various languages: Afrikaans, German and English. Each caters to its particular language speaking clientele. However, most are published at the same plant we visited. This is quite refreshing given that in the States most local papers are being gobbled up by the likes of the USA Today crowd. Because so many papers are published at this one plant, the place never shuts down—it’s 24 hours of non-stop printing.
Ruan (the political reporter for the Republikien and Esther’s friend) showed us the presses, the prep area, the ad department, the writer’s pit, and the archives. It’s a full color operation and the newspapers produced are quite sophisticated in their layout, color and design. We also got to see the storage area where the huge rolls of paper are kept. It was a most interesting tour and worked out well with the unit of inquiry for Annie’s class—Get A Job. Who knows as much as Annie likes to peruse the paper, maybe she’ll be the next Nellie Bly.
No comments:
Post a Comment