Revolutionary Publishing
Earlier this summer during a family vacation, we visited Colonial Williamsburg. I had been there years ago, but I enjoyed again stepping back into time to get a taste of life at the birth of the United States. In addition to visiting the reconstructed old Virginia Capitol and seeing the growing efforts to document the historic Black Baptist church there, it’s fun to watch the artisans at work. I always find the print shop particularly interesting.
We watched as the printer showed how he had laid out each individual letter — backwards — for the whole page and then prepared some ink to rub on the letters before pressing the paper down on top of them. Then he reapplied ink and made another page. And another. Printing a full pamphlet, newspaper, or especially book took quite a long time with that method. Yet, such printers played a key role in stirring up the revolutionary fervor needed to force the break from British control.
Although a few advances were made in the 120 years that followed to make the process a bit quicker and cheaper, my predecessors who started Word&Way used a fairly similar method to set the letters to publish the news. And they printed their first issue 129 years ago this week! I have in my office a few Word&Way printing blocks from the middle of the last century (so not even the older, more difficult style).
I have trouble imagining working that way just to publish, though they would also find what we do today at Word&Way to be completely mindboggling. Although significant technological advances have occurred since our founding in 1896, our mission has not changed. We continue to share real news that leads back to the Good News.
Another thing that hasn’t changed since we started is that it takes the support of our readers to make this all possible. Like in 1896, we couldn’t do this today without people like you reading, subscribing, and donating. So in honor of our 129th birthday, let me take a moment to say thanks for your support!
Paid subscribers are the backbone of our award-winning journalism. You can join that core community by upgrading to a paid subscription to A Public Witness. And if you’d like to make a tax-exempt donation to further help our work, you can do that here. Such support is particularly critical at this time as we seek to speak truth in an age of deceitful propaganda.
I wonder what the editor of this publication will think of my antedated technology in another 129 years.
As a public witness,
Brian Kaylor