With Fleet Street - and Newspaper — managements scrambling to large get their hands on the golden eggs being Reuters, the next few months are likely to bring about the biggest upheaval in newspaper publishing for many years. The economic, industrial and political consequences can only be guessed at, though it is a fair bet that The Campaign for Press and Broadfirst aim to only private ownership provides genuine freedom, diversity or access — is as relevant as THE OFFENSIVE of the print owners against the NGA has at its root the attempt to bring in the new, computer based, typesetting technology which will elmiminate a of the industry's workforce.
Under the traditional system copy is written by journalists, sub-edited and then taken to the linotype machine operators — generally NGA members. The linotype operators then set the copy in the form of metal plates with the letters cast in metal.
These plates, or a relief cast made from the plates, are then inked on the machine for the printing process itself.
The new computer photosetting techniques type material into a comvia a keyboard attached to visual display unit (VDU). In principle there is no reason why a journalist should dispense altogether, typing the story straight into the typesetting machine.
The news copy can then be rerun through the VDU for sub-editing and correction the push of a button, be transferred to photo-sensitive paper and run out of the type-setting machine.
This copy is then layed out in pages, a photographic plate made, ready for printing on an offset litho machine.
The introduction of this technology theretore eliminates a whole laver of the traditional printing industry - the compositors wao operate we totype machines, plate makers, and engravers. The introduction of more advanced offset litho printing machines threatens prepared takes The thousands with paper The corrected copy can, at paign for Socialist Action 16 December 1983 machine minders as well.
An example of this is management plans for the Sun. Rupert Murdoch has completely automated printing plant to print the Sun in Wapping - and when the move place hundreds, perhaps thousands, of jobs will be lost.
technology therefore threatens the loss of literally tens of of jobs. In the first nine months of 1981 alone, 10,000 jobs were lost. It is estmated that 50 per cent of the 500,000 jobs in • printing will be eliminated within 25 years. 'Who Owns Fleet Street' is from The , Radio and Television (£1.80). "The shape of things to come' is from Free Press (20p).
Both are published by The CamPress and Broadcasting Freedom, У Poland Street, Londor W1. Headlines for the articles are by Socialist Action.
Socialist Action 16 December 1983 but he had forgotten to take his phone credit can go straight into a shelter. Tribune's
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