Amazing tools available to deliver today's news
The "Newsboy" airplane gracing the front of every day's edition of the Gazette is a tribute to founder Harry Strunk's penchant for using the latest in technology to bring the best possible product to his readers at the earliest possible time.
Strunk, who founded the newspaper a century ago next year, continued to explore new ways to produce and deliver the newspaper over the years.
He would be amazed to see the way the electronic revolution has changed the news business in even the last decade.
One was the way digital photography has replaced and surpassed film. What used to be a time-consuming, expensive, messy, risky process -- we once purchased hundreds of feet of black-and-white 35 mm film each month -- has turned into a tidy, instant computerized operation.
A fleet of compact cars still plies the roads of Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas to deliver the daily product, but subscribers have the option of receiving exact replicas of the print edition instantly over the Internet.
And, each day's edition is no longer confined to what can be shoehorned into the rectangular confines of each printed page. Many stories include World Wide Web addresses for more information, with hot-links on the online edition to take readers to more information on any subject that piques their interest.
The lines between print and broadcast journalism are further blurred with the Gazette's YouTube channels. Check out Gazette staffer Justin Bass' latest work, a professional-quality video recap of the Red Willow County Fair, by clicking on the YouTube link at mccookgazette.com.
Yes, Harry Strunk would be impressed if he saw all the tools that are being used in producing his newspaper today -- but we have a feeling he would still be pressing the boundaries.