Before turning them into negatives identical in size to the window spaces I've allowed for them on the hardcopy pages, Terry reads them with a reflection densito-meter.  This instrument measures the photo's density of dark vs. light so that it prints in balance with other photo-graphs in the paper.
If I've got an unusually large number of pictures for a particular issue of the Gazette -- like from the Victoria Fishing Contest or the Victoria Lions Tournament Weekend or the Touch of Bavaria -- I often bring them to Terry a day ahead of time, all tagged and marked for location and size in the new Gazette pages.  Terry appreciates the extra drive I make to Hutchinson to give him more time with the photos, and I appreciate the extra care he can give them.

The large negatives of my Gazette pages are then sent to the adjacent Plate Room where Sid Alsleben strips in the photo negatives.  Sid, the Production Supervisor, puts my photo negs exactly where I left "window" spaces for them.  He uses a can of spray glue meant specifically for that purpose. 
I like to hang out in the Plate Room because I like to keep an eye on things.  It's not much different from being in the Delivery Room of a maternity ward.  Sometimes I push and breathe hard, but most of the time I pace the floor and move the air a little.
Sometimes, maybe twice in the past 25 years, a photo has been cut into the wrong window because I've numbered them wrong.  Sid figures things out well without my "assistance," but I can't help looking over his shoulder as he works on my baby.
Sid works at a Light Table, which is a large table that has light shining through it.  This makes it possible for him to clearly view the large negatives and also see stray marks and smudges that I accidentally make on the pages at my own layout table at home.  Sid cleans it up for me prior to printing.

Mark Theis, the Overall Production Manager at Crow River, works at the Plate Burner, which is also located in the Plate Room.  The Plate Burner exposes the page negatives (that now include my photo negatives) to metal.  In other words, as Mark says, the machine shines a light through the clear areas of the negative onto an aluminum plate that is coated with a light sensitive polymer.
He then slides the aluminum plates into a Plate Processor that washes away all of the background polymer except for those parts exposed in the Plate Burner, which is exactly everything that prints in the Gazette!  I stand at the end of the Plate Processor as the washed metal plates emerge and I count all the fingers and toes. 
It takes 10 metal plates to produce a 40 page Gazette, which means that four of my pages appear on each of the plates. 
This also explains why I must always publish the Gazette with a total number of pages that are a multiple of four.  When I first began doing the Gazette, there were often 8 or 12 pages.  I recall a long spell of a 16-page newspaper, also 24 pages, 32 pages, and, for the last couple of years or so, 40 pages.  I've been told that it is diffi-cult or nearly impossible for the press to do more than 48 pages.  When the Gazette has been that thick, it's not so easy for the press to cut and fold it properly.

Todd Theis, the Head Pressman, picks up the washed aluminum plates that now contain images of the new Gazette pages, and puts a bend on each end with a Plate Bender.  The bends help hold the plates onto the Plate Cylinders on the printing press in the next room, aptly called the Press Room.

The printing press requires a very large room because it is a very tall and long apparatus.  It's called a Web Press because it prints using rolls of paper.  A "web" is a large continuous roll of clean paper that is fed into the mechanical press where it weaves itself into a news-paper.  Each roll weighs 1,100 pounds and contains over seven miles of paper!
It takes five webs to make a 40-page edition of the Gazette, since two metal plates (for a total of eight Gazette pages) can be mounted on each of the Web Units.
  (I hope you're all taking notes and committing this to perfect comprehen-sion!  If not, click on Sue's Album at www.VictoriaGazette.com where a picture explains a thousand words.)
Purpose of the Press Units (same as Web Units) is to press ink onto the paper as it weaves through each of them from the giant rolls and heads to the Folder.
Purpose of the Folder is self explanatory.  It includes a Slitter Wheel that cuts pages 1 and 40 from pages 20 and 21, for example, which is how they are grouped on one of the metal plates.
The Folder also includes the Former Board that forms the paper into a wedge for precise folding of the newspaper.  It folds the paper so that when you receive the Gazette you can read it from cover to cover without skipping a word!
Almost all of the paper used by Crow River Press comes from Canada, and almost all of it has some percentage of recyclable content.  Conservationists might be thrilled about this, but I'm not.  As one who has witnessed the quality of newsprint for 25 years, I can tell you that your Gazette pages wrinkle and tear more easily today, and turn yellow faster, because of the recyclable content. 
That's life and something we just have to live with until people realize there are more trees on the planet today than ever before in the history of the world.  They are a renewable resource!
Back to the subject at hand, at least four or five people on each shift at Crow River Press work to ensure that all facets of the large printing press are functioning properly before Sid begins to run it at high speed. 
When it's running at high speed, you know it -- and hear it as the noise reverberates throughout the building.  I love to watch and hear the rolls of paper get woven into the Gazette.
As the press is running, the worker bees move from one press unit to another.  Ink levels have to be constant-ly monitored and adjusted in each of the press units as the 4,500 Gazettes are being printed and folded.
Todd is especially involved in press maintenance.  Sometimes the press has to be stopped while he changes the two cutting rubbers because they are not cutting the Gazette pages adequately or efficiently.  This doesn't take too long.

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