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When the staff at The Patriot Ledger decide to tackle a project, they don't mess around. Last week the Ledger published an enormous package to celebrate its 175th anniversary.
Yeah, that's one hundred seventy five years — 1-7-5 — nearly 25 years before a single shot was fired to start the Civil War.
Below are the 12 pages that made up the special section. The text on each page is a history of the newspaper written by former editor Richard W. Carlisle.
Carlisle's story nicely weaves together newspaper and U.S. history, chronicling key events when they intersect. Quincy, by the way, is the hometown of two U.S. presidents, John Adams and John Quincy Adams. One letter to the editor arrived on White House stationery. You'll have to read Carlisle's piece to find our more. Keep reading to find the links to his story and more
What more did the Ledger staff do to commemorate the anniversary? Aside from the 12-page sections above, they:
• Launched a special website that serves as an archive of the newspaper's history.
• Started a Facebook page to engage its online community.
• Created a slide show of front pages that include the first edition as well as major news throughout U.S. history.
• Produced an audio slide show of narrated Civil War letters.
• Posted an on online edition of pdfs from its 150th anniversary newspaper.
Believe it or not, this project will continue to grow. Reader callouts are being used to get comments from newspaper carriers from long ago. Businesses, too, are being asked to share milestones. Quncy, Mass., by the way, is the birthplace of Dunkin' Donuts.
Another reader callout seeks where-are-they-now information on "All-Scholastics." For more than 50 years, The Patriot Ledger has been honoring student athletes for their academic and athletic achievements.
Great stuff, huh?
I'm going to keep you here for a few more minutes, though. You'll need to keep reading to find links to these and more.
To get more information on this massive project, I contacted Chazy Dowaliby, editor of The Patriot Ledger and The Enterprise, who responded via email:
On Saturday. Jan. 7, The Patriot Ledger marked it 175th anniversary.
And we did it with a look back at our shared history with the people and events that shaped this corner of eastern Massachusetts and a call to our audience to Celebrate 175 with us by sharing their personal stories as paper carriers, all-scholastic athletes, long-time readers or businesses marking their own milestones.
In a joint message publisher Rick Daniels and I noted that the issues reported on in 1837 we not so different from our headlines today – financial crisis, emerging technologies, groups protesting government policies and people contributing stories about social or civic events.
What was also striking was the newspaper company’s consistent innovation in production and distribution of the Ledger, along with its evolution in business operations and practices - not so different from our Project Apple aspirations of 2012.
Plans for the year are still evolving, but an historical society exhibit, a public reception, a series of special sections reflecting aspects of our history are in the works. We’ve set up a niche website and a Facebook page that not only provides links to past and current material, but facilitates community conversation and content contributions.
Monday morning we received our first voicemail offer to contribute: an 89-year-old called to ask how her husband, in his 90s, could share his experiences as a former Ledger paper-carrier? “We read our Ledger cover to cover this weekend, and would love to contribute to the stories.”
Bringing personal stories of individuals who care or sacrifice for others, accomplish remarkable feats or quietly contribute to the common good are what the Quincy Patriot did in 1837 and The Patriot Ledger does now and will do into the future.
It’s that privilege of trust between us and our community that we are really celebrating this year.
To get a sense of what happened behind the scenes, Dowaliby answered a few more questions:
When did the planning process begin and how many folks were involved?
We began soliciting ideas from staff, producing PDFs from microfilm and digging up original print editions and photos from our library early in September. We opened the process to everyone in the newsroom and got some great ideas that we will build into the year-long project.
Considering the complexity of the project, what can you tell us about the timeline and the pace at which this came together?
I wish I could say we had a project plan that delineated concepts, content, print and digital development and coordinated marketing on the table months in advance. BUT, there always seemed to be something else more pressing.
With the exception of our exceptional librarian and archivist, Linda Chapman, we never got serious about planning this first section until just before Thanksgiving. And even then, we had general concepts, but no specifics.
In true newspaper tradition, the entire package came together in about three weeks – starting just before Christmas – and we were buffing and fluffing it right up to deadline Friday night.
Pace? Fast, furious, and fun!
Are there any staffers you’d like to acknowledge for their efforts?
It’s a long and distinguished list. In alphabetical order:
Linda Chapman, library
Greg Derr, supervising photographer
Steve Ide, deputy online editor
Ken Johnson, online editor
Lane Lambert, reporter
Dorene Reardon, designer and more
Linda Shepherd, city editor
Jen Wagner, copy desk chief/visuals editor
What, if anything, would you have done differently had time not been a factor?
Worked earlier and more closely with our advertising and marketing folks to develop sponsorship pages.
Sourced technology to help us digitize higher quality reproduction of our microfilm images
Refined our design and headlines
But we are a 21st century, 24/7 news organization…and time will always be a factor.
• Find the publisher's and editor's letter to readers here.
• Find the slideshow of front pages old and new here.
• Find the online version of the 140-page centennial edition here.
• Find the audio slide show of narrated Civil War letters from Quincy soldiers here.
• Find paper's Facebook anniversary page here.
• Find the website launched devoted to the anniversary here. It includes all of the links above as well.
So much great content. It's projects like this that can really bring a staff together, Dowaliby said. "Sometimes its good to reconnect with our place in the history we cover, and the communities we’re a part of. It gave us all some juice…"
Well put.
Joe Greco is corporate design director for GateHouse Media.
Contact him at jgreco@gatehousemedia.com.
