In the age of digital media and the 24-hour news cycle, it’s easy to forget about the original technology that revolutionized journalism: the printing press. Each night when the newsroom at the Gazette goes dark for the night, three to four men are manning the printing press, which fills up the adjacent two-story room. Leading the charge is John Raymer, 69, who has worked at the Gazette for thirty years and was the Press Room Manager until 2012.
While Raymer now mostly helps out during the day with training newcomers on his reduced three-day-a-week schedule, he’s been printing papers for 52 years—since his high school days in Geneva, New York. After graduation he took on an apprenticeship there and went on to work for papers in Guam, Indiana, New Jersey and, finally, Massachusetts.
Raymer settled in South Deerfield with his wife, Patricia, and three kids in 1987. As a world traveler who has seen most of Asia and Europe, a survivor of prostate cancer, and a grandfather of five, Raymer is the story behind the news stories that get delivered to homes across western Massachusetts every morning. As such, we sat down with him to find out more about the man behind the machine.
Breakfast: “Breakfast, I don’t eat. I have my coffee, that’s it.” (He drinks it black.)
Setting up shop: “Usually I just come in, I just try to get things ready for when they come in at 10 o’clock. If it’s just turning the press on, the power on, turn the compressors on. Get together with Bill Foster or Jordan Prickett, see what’s on the schedule, what they want. Right now I’m not in charge of anybody or in charge of anything, I just try to help out.”
The Flexo printing press: “Personally I’m more of a mechanical person, not electrical, so the old press I felt more comfortable with. It was more mechanical. I knew how to work it. The Flexo press, everything is touch screens. Just like a computer, you know. Well, it is a computer. It doesn’t function the way it’s supposed to all the time. Just like your laptop, it can crash, and the same is true with that. So for me it gets frustrating, at least I get frustrated, because it’s not as easy to certainly diagnose as it is a mechanical problem. But the printing, the quality of the printing I think is better on Flexo.” (The new press came from Italy on a ship in 2008.)
Lunch: “Every day peanut butter and jelly for lunch. I try to eat healthier. The older you get the worse it gets. So I have my blueberries, I have my radishes, I have my celery. And my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”
Best part of the job: “The people. You know it’s, you get to see, you get to meet new people. In the press room, it’s been a big turnover of people, but most of the people have been very good. And the people in the building here. I don’t know as many people as I used to. I used to be more involved in the whole operation. Before I stepped down I was one of the department heads and you went to daily meetings, you met people, and I did, I had a lot more responsibilities than I do now. A lot of the people I still don’t even know, but I get along with the advertising department, circulating, everyone. So, for me it’s been fun.”
Toughest part of the job: “Being on my feet this long. I work three days but I usually work a 10-hour day. So, you know, the older you get.”
Favorite section of the paper: “Me, I like it all. I read the sports, I read all the national news, local. Horoscope.” (He’s a Taurus.)
Unwinding after work: “How I used to unwind? Go home and have a couple drinks. But I cut back on that. When I was younger I used to go home and work. I mean you still had to mow the lawn, still had to shovel snow, the kids were always in sports so we were always running with the kids to sports, and now we go see the grandkids’ sports.” (His go-to drink? Whiskey and water.)
A typical day off: “Oh, lots of things. Hobbies. In wintertime I do some woodworking, I cane chairs. In the summertime and spring I have vegetable gardens, flowers, pumpkin patch. Of course, the yard work, and motorcycles.”
Next vacation: “We take a lot of trips. I’ve been riding motorcycles for over 50 years. Parents wouldn’t let us have cars, so we had motorcycles. And we take a lot of good trips. Actually we’ve got one planned — my son and I are going to Salt Lake City for three weeks in July. It’s a motorcycle rally. BMW motorcycle rally. And so we’ll go there and then we’re going to go to Yellowstone and we’re going to go to Glacier National Park.” (Yes — that’s Massachusetts to Salt Lake City on a motorcycle.)
Motto: “It doesn’t cost anything to be friendly.”