lol. I’m in the middle of feeding my pteradactyls too. Potato soup.
What if the lists were long or if the number of pages for the paper didn’t add up just right? Would those things change the process? Could you see a scenario where a list would be cut in half and only half be printed and the other half be printed later? If so, how much later?
Would there be an agreement to print all the announcements the DOH sent in the list?
Sorry for the delayed reply — had to go out of town.
I really can’t envision a scenario where the list would be cut or delayed. It was likely a regular weekly feature, and that column was likely typeset and a hole reserved for it in its entirely. Generally, editors will have plenty of space for what is necessary and use fillers if there’s space left over. If there are cuts, it would be a filler or inconsequential wire story.
In my experience, announcements such as these would likely run the same day of the week, every week, a regular feature. Because they would not be breaking news, they would be typeset when they came in and the galleys ready for the press in advance of daily production. They would be on a page of similar articles — those with a public interest, but not urgent or time sensitive.
Dear Abby, the comics, the crossword, etc. are all similarly prepared in advance of the daily news deadlines. So are feature articles, those that tell a human interest story, but don’t have to published the day they’re written.
The editor in charge of page makeup for the section in which these announcements ran would know what to expect and would have all his copy in advance — some for days, some probably the day before publication. He’d simply make it all fit the available space. If he needed more space, he’d drop a short article or lop the end off of one. But not likely the birth announcements, not likely at all. I can’t imagine them not running in their entirely. After all, holding over some would just demand more space the following week.
This is assuming they ran weekly, which they probably did. We need to check microfilm to see for sure.
The number of pages in a newspaper is decided not by how much copy (articles, etc.) but how much ad revenue there is. And different sections will have different allocations and deadlines. National and local news pages are put together at the last minute, in a hurry. Same with sports. But not editorials and features and data like the announcements, which would be prepared in advance to free the linotype operators to set deadline articles.
Another thing: those announcements from the other islands may not have been sent to the Honolulu papers, unless the islands were in their circulation area. I have no idea. Again, we need to see microfilm to determine the pattern.
I have no experience whatsoever with Hawaii newspapers, so take it for what it’s worth.