Column: Getting the news out take more than mechanics

Jan. 14—My streak is over.

After 35 years and a few months of producing a daily printed newspaper, the run ended last Saturday when the Aiken Standard didn't print a daily newspaper for the Jan. 7 edition.

Despite whatever obstacles I've encountered — bad weather, mechanical issues, you name it — I've always been fond of saying, "We got the paper out."

Getting the Aiken Standard printed has been a challenge in the past year, and even more so the past couple of weeks. A couple of days before Christmas we began printing at our sister paper in Charleston and shipping it back for daily delivery.

That meant early deadlines and a bunch of other adjustments. But at the end of last week, the part we needed for our press arrived and was to be installed that Friday. We went ahead and prepared the pages early, just in case.

Then my cellphone rang Friday night. It was our publisher, and he told me the grim news. Our press wasn't quite ready, and we had missed our opportunity to print in Charleston and get the papers back to Aiken in a timely fashion.

I posted a story on our website and on our social media. We made changes to the e-edition so everyone could see it.

After a fitful night's sleep, I woke up Saturday morning. As I go into the kitchen for my morning cup of coffee, I always look out our living room window to see if our paper is there. And it always is, usually next to the mailbox. But not Saturday.

Getting a daily newspaper produced, printed and delivered is no small feat. When I came back to the Aiken Standard in September 2019, the buzz around Rutland Drive was the new-to-us press that had been installed. It replaced the one that had been installed in the mid-1980s — when I was still in college and an aspiring sportswriter.

We produced a special section on the new press in October 2019 called "The Daily Miracle." It highlighted the new equipment and showed all of the steps taken by the press operators to print the "daily miracle," our industry's nickname for the daily newspaper.

When Winter Storm Pax hit our area in 2014, The Augusta Chronicle (my employer at the time) and the Aiken Standard each printed daily. There are many instances of newspapers printing through hurricanes and other natural disasters.

The one that gives me chills is the horrific shooting that killed five employees of The Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Md. An editorial cartoon shows the five victims arriving at the pearly gates in heaven, and St. Peter holding up a newspaper. "Yes, they got the paper out," he said.

Getting the newspaper out each day is a source of immense pride for those in the business. We know there are many ways you can access our paper, through apps, social media and the e-edition, but there is something about that printed product that is special. You can hold it and get ink on your hands while you leisurely leaf through the pages.

Today, getting the paper out goes beyond the printed product. It includes making sure the e-edition is uploaded, putting stories on the aikenstandard.com website and posting links to social media channels.

On Saturday, I nervously awaited word that the press was up and running. I got confirmation in mid-afternoon and slept much better Saturday night.

When I went to get the paper off my front lawn Sunday morning, a gentleman who was walking by commented that he didn't get Saturday's paper. I explained the situation, and he said he received The New York Times. Then he joked that it was light on Aiken news.

There you have it, our reason for existence. We take pride in being Aiken County's "trusted local source for news and information." We've been doing it since 1867, and hopefully for many years to come.

Thanks for reading.