by Samantha Aversano, staff reporter
A sports columnist for the New York Times Newspaper sits in a board room at the New York Times plant addressing children and their parents. He talks about his experience as a journalist and how he has come so far. He also mentions some points on how to be a good journalist to help the students gain a better understanding of a career in Journalism.
Children and their families came out to take the tour at the New York Times Printing Press, and also hear from George Vecsey, a sports columnist for the New York Times Newspaper, on his experience about being a journalist.
“What made me want to go was that my grandmother lives right by there, and when we go home, every time we go on the highway, we pass it and I thought, ‘What would it be like to be in there and see everything being made?’” 6th grader Daniel Ian said.
The plant allowed around 25 kids and their families to go for the tour on Tuesday, November 19th at 6:00pm. The restricted amount of people in the plant made it easy to walk around the plant safely. At the plant, they showed the parents and kids where they store the paper for the newspapers, where they print the paper, where the ink came from, etc.
“My favorite part was that we got to see how the papers were made, but my favorite place in the plant was the ink storage room where I got to see where all the ink was coming from, ” said 6th grader Daniel Ian. “They had all assorted colors like black, blue, red and yellow. It was very interesting to see how the papers were made with color.”
After, the workers of the plant took the families into a board room where they waited for Vecsey to come. Vecsey arrived at 6:30pm and talked about how his family comes from a background of journalism, and how he got through the hard times of being a reporter.
“By the time you go to work for the New York Times you know [how to gather information], and just start asking questions,” Vecsey said. “Basically [you] think on your feet.”
“I had been there before but I wanted to meet George Vecsey, because he’s a sports writer and I am a very big sports fan,“ 6th grader Jesse Gilbertsovern said.
The printing plant is located at 1 New York Times Plaza, opening up in 1997. The plant had ‘robots’ roaming around the work floor that moved the rolls of newspapers around. They were programmed to do there own work and do work faster than a normal human. Discarded newspapers were on the ground that many parents and kids got to take home as souvenirs.
WJPS Blazer: voice of the students 