On the last day of August, twelve TPM staff, docents, and volunteers embarked on a tour of the Houston Chronicle offices and press room, led by Elizabeth Pudwill, 25-year veteran, Executive Assistant to the Editor, and primary caretaker of the newsroom dog, Ginger.
The tour of the Chronicle’s headquarters on Southwest Freeway started in the lobby underneath a quote by Jesse Jones engraved in marble (a relic from its former building downtown).
The publication of a newspaper is a distinct public trust and one not to be treated lightly or abused for selfish purposes or to gratify selfish whims. A great daily newspaper can remain a power for good only so long as it is uninfluenced by unworthy motives and unbought by the desire for gain.
Jesse H. Jones
We journeyed into the “PRESS ROOM”, which was not a room at all, but a three-level steampunk cathedral built in homage to the printing presses it housed. On the first level, automated robots move around on tracks, transporting the gigantic rolls of paper from the warehouse to the web offset litho presses one level above. Not only does the second-level house the presses, but also the rooms where aluminum litho plates are made and process inks are stored.
Each section of the paper travels a labyrinthine path through the presses as it gets printed, folded, and collated, all mechanically. The papers are then loaded neatly on pallets, after which they head out for delivery.
The presses, which used to run most of the day pre-Internet, now run at night from around 8pm to 3am. The facility also prints local editions of national papers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal as well as local papers such as the Austin American-Statesman, the Beaumont Enterprise, and the San Antonio Express-News. These newspaper editions are delivered digitally and the Chronicle makes the plates, prints, and distributes the papers to the respective hometowns or to Houston-area subscribers.
We finished the tour on the 4th floor newsroom where roughly 25 people were spotted amongst the desks and glass-enclosed offices and where Melissa Aguilar, Senior Editor for Features, joined us.
There is a lot more than meets the eye as you tour the building. For many of us who are intimately aware of the Model 31 Linotype on display at The Printing Museum, we quickly spotted a similarly retired Linotype tucked away in the corner, offering a glimpse of the past before the digital revolution.
There was so much more history to cover that we couldn’t fit it all in the one-hour tour. We briefly touched on Maxine Mesinger and her “Big City Beat” column as well as the Pulitzer Prize-winning team led by Lisa Faulkenberg, highlighting excellence in journalism right here in our hometown of Houston.
By Rekha Basra, Museum docent
The Printing Museum is grateful to the Houston Chronicle for opening their doors to us, and in turn, to our museum members and printing enthusiasts alike.