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Are you questioning our quite quizzical title? Or, have you ever queried what it takes to create a quality weekly periodical?
We’ll reveal the secret and lift the paper curtain to show you the making of the Kaiserslautern American newspaper.
Every Thursday afternoon a rough draft and structure, called Paper Plan, of the next paper is sent to the publisher with the main topics for the following week.
Airmen from the 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs Office set out to interview individuals on daily operations or special events, shoot photos and films and then write features about their findings, create dynamic photo stories or produce videos. Others might be busy preparing posts for social media, designing graphics, coordinating with two sister wings or discussing relevant questions with higher leadership. Another group of staff might be handling media queries and a further party keeps close ties with German representatives for community updates.
At the same time, U.S. Army counterparts from the 21st Theater Sustainment Command and U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz venture out to report on port operations and exercises around Europe, local happenings or cover other interest items that are forwarded to the editor.
Simultaneously the staff at the publishing house AdvantiPro is busy with designing quality layout, collecting private and commercial ads and handling customer sales and quality assurance. The graphics expert stays in close contact with 86th AW Public Affairs and makes recommendations on the layout.
All in all, a team of about quinquaginta (Latin for fifty) people has been engaged in providing newsworthy content and an attractive appearance of the paper for almost two quarters of a century.
The first edition of the Kaiserslautern American was printed January 1976 and its predecessor, the bi-monthly magazine “Ram Jet” was published from mid-1955 up until that time. Since then, fifty editions of the paper have been produced each year, equaling 2,350 newspapers with roughly 25,000 features and photo stories for readers to enjoy. 10,0000 copies are printed each week, making this somewhere close to 23.5 million copies in total. The first digital edition went online January 2012.
Everything runs together in one small office at the Public Affairs Office, where the editor collects relevant items such as the Housing Hype, the History Corner or Take Note, and then passes on actual content to the publisher for layout and searches for and writes additional items of interest.
By Wednesday a first draft is sent to the editor for initial review and teasers for the cover page are picked. Thursday morning can be exciting when reviewing the final draft. For example, if a last-minute change of the cover becomes necessary or a layout needs to be re-arranged.
When everything is fine tuned and ready to go by noon, the paper is cleared for print and digitally sent to the press in Oggersheim for production and folding, and the digital version is uploaded in the late evening. Our “paper baby” is mature and ready for delivery throughout the KMC in the wee hours of Friday morning for readers such as in Queidersbach or St. Quentin Ring in Kaiserslautern to enjoy.
And, the quintessence: Just hours after sending out “ready to press,” and while the printing press rattles and folds the newspapers within 45-60 minutes, the Paper Plan for the following week is forwarded to the publisher, and the fifty busy work-a-bees start the process all over again.
In other words, while you’re reading this article, next week’s paper, and the last edition this year, is already in process…
