Mechanical production of any kind is an unsympathetic and inexorable
thing, and the modern large daily newspaper, in its mechanical
production, is unsympathetic and inexorable to the highest degree. It
reproduces exactly and impartially from all the different material
supplied to it.
Your ad-plate is locked into the form with the other matter composing
the page. A hurried lock-up, and the form is molded into a mat and
stereotyped. Fast presses and cheap ink do the rest.
If your ad does not show up well in the first few impressions run off,
the press grinds on just the same, with little or no make-ready. Once
they start, it is too late to stop to allow the press-room foreman to
investigate why a certain ad does not print up well. The "Daily Bugle"
must get on the streets, if possible, before its competitors with the
important scoop that the Beghum of Swat has just died. If you have
supplied the best material for the newspapers to work with, the
clean-cut reproduction of your advertisement is insured. If you have
been penny-wise and pound-foolish in saving a few cents on your
ad-plate, all the dollars you spent on art, typography and white space
for your ad are on the knees of the gods and liable to be spilled off
the said knees, and your ad is messy looking when it appears. The
advertiser invariably blames the newspaper and the newspaper passes
the buck on to the plate-maker. The printed appearance of the ad is
largely determined by the kind of plate furnished to the newspaper.
The large daily newspapers are entirely dependent upon the
stereotyping process for the necessary speed required in production.
They do not print directly from type or cuts. The big advantage of
stereotyping in this connection lies in the fact that it is the
quickest method of producing a solid, duplicate printing plate from an
original molding form. After locking up a page form, it can be molded,
the matrix dried and the plate cast and ready for the press in about
ten minutes.
Therefore, only unmounted plates should be sent to the large daily
papers and not wood mounted, as it takes too long for the heat to pass
through the wood base in drying the mat.
The unmounted plate is placed on a metal base, (because heat passes
through metal quickly in drying the mat) and then locked in the form
with the type and other matter composing the entire page. A mat is
then molded from the complete form and a curved stereotype is cast
from this page mat. It is from this curved full page stereotype that
the large daily newspaper is actually printed.
Since they must duplicate the plates sent to them by the stereotyping
process, your expensively prepared advertisement, if it is to appear
sharp and clean in the valuable space it uses, should be electrotyped
by your plate-maker. A stereotype duplicated from an electrotype will
print cleaner than a stereotype duplicated from a stereotype by reason
of the fact that mats molded by the newspaper from electrotypes are
sharper and deeper than when they are molded from stereotypes.
Electrotypes have a distinctly sharper and harder face and are deeper
than stereotypes. The very nature of the process and materials used in
their manufacture makes this superiority inevitable. Wax is used as
the plastic medium in which to mold electrotypes, whereas for
stereotypes paper is used. Sharpness and depth cannot be molded into
paper as it can into wax.
Neither will stereotype metal poured by gravity against a paper matrix
mold be as sharp and deep as copper deposited electrolytically on a
wax mold.
It follows, therefore, that when an unmounted electrotype is supplied
to the "Chicago Tribune" or the "New York Journal" or the "San
Francisco Call" they are stereotyping your ad in the page form from a
plate molded in wax directly from the original.
On the other hand, when you supply a stereotype of your ad to the
large dailies this stereotype is already one step removed from the
original master plate and means that two paper mats intervene between
the original supplied to the plate-maker and the final stereotype of
the page containing your advertisement. In short, they are duplicating
a stereotype from a stereotype and each duplication means a loss in
sharpness and depth; therefore they should be supplied with a sharp
electrotype from which to make their final page mat.
Obviously when a stereotype is supplied to the large dailies they are
working from a plate that is neither sharp nor deep to start with, as
would be the case if you sent them an electrotype from which to work.
An electrotype is economy in the end and will save you grief, when the
cost of space is considered.
Should you desire economy, order your plate-maker to send mats--copy
considered--to the large dailies. A mat is less expensive than a
stereotype and will reproduce your advertisement equally as well.
When you send them a mat instead of an electro there is one more
duplication for the newspapers to make in producing the final
stereotype from which they print, but the mat which your plate-maker
furnishes them is at least molded directly from the original plate, so
that it is sharper and deeper than the mat the newspapers have to make
when you furnish them a stereotype from which to work. When you
furnish the large dailies with the mat they cast a flat stereotype
first, which is locked up in the form with the other matter composing
the page. This entire form is then molded into a mat and stereotyped.
The small dailies and country newspapers print directly from type and
cuts. They use a flat-bed press. For this reason it is necessary that
the advertising-plate or dealers cut which you furnish to them should
be mounted type-high.
The best plate you can furnish them is none too good; their make-ready
and the general handling of their material is not of the highest order
in efficiency as compared to the large dailies, and it is entirely
probable that even with a good sharp electrotype, your advertisement
may not show to advantage. With a stereotype, the liability of smudgy
printing is greatly enhanced.
The Rapid Electrotype Company knows the mechanical equipment of the
different newspapers throughout the United States. It sends mounted
plates to those papers that print directly from type and cuts, and
unmounted plates to those that stereotype their forms. This detail is
left entirely to their discretion. The names of the towns to which
your advertisement or dealers-cut is to be shipped is all the
information they require in order to determine whether or not to ship
mounted or unmounted plates.