Soon after being given a high tech beat at the Atlanta Business Chronicle, in 1982, I bought my first computer. (The picture was taken in 1981.)
I could suddenly write up an interview or press event in an hour. I would read it out loud and make corrections. Then my super-loud C. Itoh dot-matrix printer would buzz it up onto fanfold paper.
The fanfold would go to typesetters, who created long sheets they would paste onto boards, which became the paper. Plastic squares would be turned into pictures at the printer. The pictures would be clipped to each board and the whole collection driven 50 miles. Most papers were then mailed to subscribers, but some were bound for retail sale.
Back at the front end of this process I bragged I could do the work of three men. The noise, and my attitude, caused the paper to fire me the next year and hire the three men.
A few years later I visited my former boss in Houston and found everyone was working at terminals.
Recent Comments