On Monday April 29th, the first day back from break, 18 members of EMC and GTV went on a trip to the Times Union to learn about journalism. The tour of the building began with a brief history of the company.  After that, the group headed to the offices to learn about the the cycle of news and different jobs and sections of the paper.

The tour then proceeded to the printing room where large rolls of paper were stacked. Each roll weighed about 3/4 of a ton and was made of recycled paper and wood scraps.  Once the rolls are empty, scraps left are recycled with their cardboard wrappings and the interior cardboard tubes. Meanwhile, the paper is fed into one of the 5 large printing machines produced in Germany. The Times Union uses aluminum plates with a special plastic coating to print the papers. These are also recycled when they have finished being used. Four plates are used to print one page. Each plate prints one color: red, yellow, blue, or black. These plates are carefully lined up to print detailed colorful images and text. The ink is stored in large tanks next to the printing presses. Their machines can print about 80,000 pages in an hour.

On a normal day some employees arrive at 6:00 a.m. to update the website with traffic issues. Another group arrives at about 2:00 p.m. to report on events that takes place in the afternoon, like sports events. Articles are due at 5:00, where they are edited before the printing process begins at around midnight. The Times Union prints not only there own papers, but several other local papers for other businesses, and a school newspaper, for another source of income. The company looks for many sources of revenue  When the printing is done, the delivery process begins. The Times Union delivers all of its papers by 6 a.m. Then the process begins again. This 24 hour cycle is what it takes to keep their readers up to date with current events.

What began as a small business started by brothers. is now a thriving part of the community.This day was a great chance for members of GTV and EMC to learn about jobs in journalism and reporting.