The rich heritage of newspaper printing, with its important political, social, and literary roots, has been undocumented – until now. Our video will be the first to provide a lasting historical document, of importance to all Americans but especially young adults who have little or no knowledge of past technologies, of the working-class trades, or the role organized labor has played in the American workplace.

Importantly for history, "Pressed for Time" has captured what is indeed the final day of the newspaper printing trade. On October 10, 2003, we brought our crew into the composing room of the San Francisco Chronicle to document the last full day of hand composing the daily news section. The SF Chronicle was the last major newspaper in the U.S. to install a full pagination system.

Our documentary begins with the question: "What is a printer?" We then take viewers on a visual journey through the past, present, and future of the newspaper printing trade to examine this culturally diverse community of individualists, skilled crafts people, trade unionists, and literate, blue-collar workers.

At the heart of our film are the printers themselves – the men and women who were still on the job at the San Francisco Chronicle prior to October 2003, as well as those who have now retired or have chosen to retrain. Their stories about the days before pagination, their thoughts about the future, and their feelings about their craft define what it means to have been a printer. Through the printers' words and their feelings about these immense changes, viewers also gain insight on how one community of workers coped with displacement through automation.

These contemporary printers, in turn, frame the historical segments of our story. Newspaper printers championed America's First Amendment freedoms of speech and the press. Counted proudly among their numbers: John Peter Zenger, Benjamin Franklin, Horace Greeley, Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and Carrie Nation.

Printers were the glue that held our nation together – the men and women who journeyed west "with shirttails full of type," as our film's adviser, Ben Bagdikian, said. Their lexicon, including playful phrases such as "get the lead out," has enriched our language. Through the International Typographical Union, printers were at the forefront of the progressive labor movement, championing equal pay for women and the eight-hour work day. The printing trade also encompasses a group whose labor has been an integral part of the composing room: the deaf.

"Pressed for Time" depicts the evolution of printing as it chronicles this storied community of workers. Through the use of archival film footage, vintage photographs, and the re-creation of historical printing processes, we invite viewers into the composing room as if they were working alongside the printers. The past comes alive as we illustrate the technological transformation of the printers' domain from the 17th to the 21st centuries by highlighting:

– The earliest days of hand-set type, from Colonial times to the Western migration;
– The advent of the Linotype duirng the Industrial Age;
– The modern era of computers through today's pagination systems.

To add perspective to the history of newspaper printing, we call on the expertise of our advisers, including Ben Bagdikian and Thomas Leonard of the University of California, Berkeley; printing arts expert Kathleen Walkup of Mills College, Oakland, California; Tom Johnson, San Francisco State University, and labor scholar Daniel Leab.

Copyright, 1998-2003. Use of text and photos prohibited without permission from CQ Productions.