Constant change feature of 'ODT' career

Allied Press operations director Ray Clarkson has retired after nearly 50 years at the Otago...
Allied Press operations director Ray Clarkson has retired after nearly 50 years at the Otago Daily Times. Photo: Linda Robertson.
After nearly 50 years in the same line of work, managers tend to become more and more resistant to change.

But Ray Clarkson is from a different mould of molten metal.

"I do thrive on change, because it’s a challenge and I’m no good without a challenge. I get bored quickly without it."

The 71-year-old retired this week after nearly 50 years at the Otago Daily Times.

He has been responsible for most of the technological upgrades at the company since 1968.

Mr Clarkson started his career as an apprentice electrician for Jack Edmonds Electrical.

But when electrical work in the city slowed in 1964, he got his first taste of life at the Otago Daily Times when he was "loaned out" to work with the ODT’s electrician.

Ray Clarkson (centre) and Otago Daily Times staff mark the introduction of the first computerised...
Ray Clarkson (centre) and Otago Daily Times staff mark the introduction of the first computerised typesetting, the One System, in 1981. With Mr Clarkson is Bob Leveloff of One System Agents, Morrisons Inks. Standing behind and between them is Allied Press employee Terry Fitten, and on the right Allied Press equipment maintenance staff member Warren Godfrey. Photo: ODT files.
"That was when the ODT  sat opposite the Queens Gardens in lower High St.

"I spent two years there, helping to install their new Goss letterpress newspaper press."

Then he got a job working for Paykel Honeywell, which sold and installed industrial process electronic controls.

Then in June 1968, Mr Clarkson received a phone call from the ODT, saying they wanted him  back, as  their electrician was leaving.

It was another challenge.

"I became the ODT’s electrician and looked after the maintenance side of the business.

"Not only did they have the newspaper, they had a commercial printing division with a lot of new, modern machinery.

"A lot of the profits made by the ODT in those days was poured back into the commercial side, and they were buying some fairly expensive, sophisticated off-set printing machinery.

"I spent a lot of time in there installing new machines, wiring them up, getting them going and helping train people to use them."

Following the merger of the ODT and  Evening Star companies in 1975, the ODT moved its operations to the Evening Star building in Stuart St in 1977, where it still is today.

During 1976, Mr Clarkson  helped change the printing process by adding electronic tape-driven machines to the linotype process.

"It was the first form of computerised typesetting. It seemed quite complicated."

The linotype machine, developed in the 1880s, involved people working a keyboard to assemble lines of type using brass matrices consisting of letters, numbers, or punctuation marks in sequence.

The matrices were then mechanically held in place while molten type metal was forced into them, creating a line of type.

Tape-driven machines automated the process, requiring fewer  people to operate linotype machines.

Mr Clarkson  said working with the production departments from both newspapers during the merger was challenging because the Evening Star and the ODT were fierce competitors before  the merger took place.

"I got a bit of ribbing. But I gave a fair bit back, too."

He recalls with fondness the hustle and bustle of the production rooms in his early days.

"They were very noisy. There was a lot of banging, crashing, the clack-clack-clacking of linotype machines.

"It’s much quieter these days, but you had a sense of activity back then, that things were being done.

"Today, you can’t see any of that."

Compared with production methods in the 1970s, he said only a fraction of those people were needed to produce a newspaper today.

In 1980, Mr Clarkson was assigned to research the next upgrade in the ODT’s production system.

He travelled around various newspapers in New Zealand, Australia and the United States to  study the systems they used.

Soon after, the ODT’s  linotype machines were replaced with computerised typesetting, paste-up tables, scalpels, bromide paper film and polymer plates.

The newspaper’s  articles, pictures and advertisements were carefully cut and placed on a template page, which was then photographed and turned into polymer printing plates for the newspaper printing press.

Once he had the system installed and completed  staff training, Mr Clarkson was made the company’s production manager.

He had earned a reputation for being progressive and always on the lookout for new, more efficient technology to upgrade the company’s publishing systems.

In the late 1980s, he was made operations manager, and true to form, he started researching the next printing system — the Dupont system.

"It was quite a lot more sophisticated. It handled classified ads a lot better and produced completed pages ready for plate-making.

"The need to paste up the pages was eliminated."

Then in the 1990s, the Atex system was introduced and the production process became fully automated and computerised.

Since 1990, Mr Clarkson has been the company’s operations director, and is a director on the boards of ODT parent

Allied Press and the Greymouth  Star.

In 1997, Mr Clarkson  oversaw the  installation  and commissioning of a new Goss HT70 offset printing press, along with a Ferag publishing and packaging system.

"We were the last newspaper in the southern hemisphere to convert to offset printing.

"This gave the company great flexibility with colour printing and improved the quality of the printed image."

While many dislike change, Mr Clarkson said if there was not constant change and new challenges to meet in his job, he would not have found it as rewarding.

"I’ve basically been involved in change since I started working with the newspapers.

"I’ve always been looking for the next way to progress forward with the business. In the end, I think the staff started to get used to it.

"The newspaper business is about people — lots of people — and I have been lucky to have had good people working for me and with me, as we have progressed and modernised our newspaper printing and production methods.

"I’ve been involved in change, I’ve seen all the changes here, and I’ve probably had my finger in the pie with most of the changes, certainly the things with a technical nature.

"I would like to think I’ve done a reasonably good job in doing the research and choosing the equipment to get the company to where it is today.

"I’ve been lucky because it’s made my job quite interesting. It’s been a rewarding career."

Allied Press chairman Sir Julian Smith said he first met Mr Clarkson during the merger of the Evening Star and the Otago Daily Times, and they had subsequently worked closely for many years.

"Over his period here, he has overseen many of the changes that were necessary to make.

"He has become a good friend, as well as a good director of the company, and his contribution over those years is greatly appreciated, not only by the company shareholders but everyone associated with Allied Press."

Mr Clarkson said he was now about to experience one of the greatest changes of his life.

He retired on Friday.

"I’m looking forward to retirement, because it’s time I moved on and let some of the younger ones come through.

"They’ve got the challenges in front of them now, but those challenges are coming from an entirely different direction.

"It used to be, get the best out of your newspaper. Now it’s get the best no matter what, whether it’s out of newspapers, online, television or digital.

"If you’re going to be in the game, you’ve got to give it your best and get on with it.

"That’s a challenge for younger minds going forward, to succeed and carry on."

Mr Clarkson’s next challenge is to find new challenges outside the work environment.

He still has that twinkle in his eye, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.

Comments

Mr Clarkson, legend has it you got the high tech, temporarily glitchy, German machinery, up again by giving it a whack.

Congratulations. Best wishes. A reader of linear type.

 

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