of the author’s mental adventures, so the press page yields the 
inside story of the community in action and interaction. It is for 
this reason that the press seems to be performing its function 
most when revealing the seamy side. Real news is bad news—
bad news about  somebody, or bad news for  somebody. In 
1962, when Minneapolis had been for months without a 
newspaper, the chief of police said: “Sure, I miss the news, but 
so far as my job goes I hope the papers never come back. There 
is less crime around without a newspaper to pass around the 
ideas.”

     Even before the telegraph speed-up, the newspaper of the 
nineteenth century had moved a long way toward a mosaic 
form. Rotary steam presses came into use decades before 
electricity, but typesetting by hand remained more satisfactory 
than any mechanical means until the development of linotype