A Message To Print Media...Get With The Times Already!

I just wanted to drop you a line, print media. I just wanted to tell you to get with the times already! And coming from slow-to-change Old Man Savastano, that is sayin’ a lot!

As my loyal readers will tell you, print media, I have this long-running (since 1998) obsession with posting articles for others to read, originally in my e-newsletters, later on blogs, and now on social media. Marketing and business articles across the board go on my personal and business sites and pages, and funny stuff and political ranting go solely on my personal sites and pages (as to only offend my closest friends).

So, guess what is really annoying to me, print media?  While 98% of what I read and deem to be post-worthy comes to me by electronic means, every once in a while, I actually pick up a piece of, you guessed it, print media. And believe it or not, quite often I find an article that I really like and would like to post.

But, when I pick up my electronic device and set out to find the article in your antiquated and dying medium, guess what I have a really hard time finding, or never find at all? That’s right! The article in your printed piece of media that I wanted to share with hundreds, if not, by Facebook’s friends of friends or LinkedIn’s connections of connections calculations, thousands of people.

I get that it costs money to produce your printed piece that is riddled with advertising, but at the same time, in today’s age of digital sharing, not posting the same articles that are in your printed piece to your website as well so that people who find them interesting can share them seems crazy to me. We all know that you should be transitioning as much as you can to digital right now, print media.

At a time when my hundreds of magazines per month has dwindled down to just a few print stragglers, at a time when I have decided to never again renew another print magazine subscription, and at a time when the last thing in the world I would ever tell someone to do is to buy a copy of a magazine so they could read an article that I liked as opposed to just posting it and giving them the ability read it instantaneously, it is time for you, print media, to get with the times, otherwise, next time, I will remember that I cannot find the articles that are in your print version also in a digital version online, and immediately, without bothering to look at it, put your piece of print media right where it belongs…in the recycle bin.

The Interesting Journey Of The Body Of The Father Of Many Of Our Fonts

John Baskerville lived an interesting life, but the after-life of his “earthly” remains is a Gothic tale of Poe-tic proportions.

Baskerville had a lifelong passion for beautiful lettering and books. Around 1726, Baskerville moved to Birmingham, England and in 1738, he began experimenting with different types of papermaking, ink manufacturing, typefounding and printing. Baskerville invented his first of many typefaces in 1754 and most “serif” style fonts, even Times New Roman which was developed for the London Times newspaper, have been adaptations of Baskerville fonts. 

Baskerville would later go on to be the printer for the Cambridge University Press, and ironically for an atheist, is best known for his Cambridge University printing of the Bible. Baskerville even became a close friend of Benjamin Franklin while working with Cambridge University.

Baskerville died in 1775 after a long, interesting life, but he could not have even imagined the journey his body was about to take. Baskerville’s will decreed that he did not care in which manner he was buried, but only that he not be buried on consecrated ground, so he was placed in a lead coffin and buried on the grounds of his home.

In 1791, the Baskerville home was destroyed in the Birmingham riots and the land was sold to John Ryland who left it to his son Samuel, who sold it to Thomas Gibson who cut a canal through the grounds to create wharf land.

In 1821, workers came across Baskerville’s coffin and though Baskerville’s descendants didn’t want it, Gibson did not want to bury it in consecrated ground per Baskerville’s original wishes, so he placed it in his warehouse, where after eight years it was placed in John Marston’s plumbing shop. Baskerville's coffin was placed in a corner and sometimes even used as a workbench.

After eight years in the plumbing shop, Martson’s curiosity got the best of him and he opened the coffin only to make on-lookers ill at the sight. Once having opened it, Marston didn’t want the coffin around anymore, so he applied to have it buried in his family’s vault at St. Philip’s Church, but permission was refused.

A bookseller by the name of Nott who knew and appreciated Baskerville’s work agreed to bury the coffin in the Nott family vault, so Marston put it in a wheel barrow, wheeled it across town and left it on the floor of the Nott vault at Christ Church.

In 1892, Baskerville’s coffin was finally encased in cement, of course after being opened by the curious again, and placed properly in the Nott vault. Then, in 1899, after only seven years of proper burial, nearly 125 years after his death, the Christ Church was demolished to make way for a shopping district and Baskerville’s remains, along with the remains of 600 others were finally laid to rest permanently at the Warstone Lane catacombs, although still against his wishes, in consecrated ground.

His body’s legacy and journey lasted much longer than Baskerville’s actual life.