{"id":5677,"date":"2015-08-05T05:00:43","date_gmt":"2015-08-05T09:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=5677"},"modified":"2015-08-05T22:29:54","modified_gmt":"2015-08-06T02:29:54","slug":"the-newspapers-on-the-boulevard-of-the-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2015\/08\/05\/the-newspapers-on-the-boulevard-of-the-allies\/","title":{"rendered":"The newspapers on the Boulevard of the Allies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"1957: <\/a>
1957: An exterior view of The Pittsburgh Press office building at 34 Blvd. of the Allies. Delivery trucks are lined up on the Boulevard of the Allies. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"1957: <\/a>
1957: An exterior view of The Pittsburgh Press office building at 34 Blvd. of the Allies. Delivery trucks are lined up on the Boulevard of the Allies. <\/div> <\/div>
\"1957: <\/a>
1957: A view of The Pittsburgh Press’ printing press at 34 Blvd. of the Allies. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"1957: <\/a>
1957: A view of The Pittsburgh Press’ printing press at 34 Blvd. of the Allies. No publication date. <\/div> <\/div>
\"1957: <\/a>
1957: A meeting of the sales staff at The Pittsburgh Press. <\/div> <\/div>
\"January <\/a>
January 1957: An editor sits in his office at The Pittsburgh Press. Out the window, parts of what would become Gateway Plaza are visible. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"1957: <\/a>
1957: A man loads plates to print news pages at The Pittsburgh Press office. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: The stereotype department and plate machine inside The Pittsburgh Press office where the platemaking took place. <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: The news desk inside The Pittsburgh Press office at 34 Blvd. of the Allies. <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: The copy cutter desk inside the composing room at The Pittsburgh Press office. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: Two employees of The Pittsburgh Press work in the engraving room with color plates. <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: A row of teletype machines at The Pittsburgh Press office. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: An employee of The Pittsburgh Press loads paper for the newspaper’s printing run. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: An employee of The Pittsburgh Press works in the stereotyping department with the matte machine. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: An employee loads the proof machine inside the composing room at The Pittsburgh Press office. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: A view of the rewrite department inside The Pittsburgh Press editorial office. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: Employees at The Pittsburgh Press work on the newspaper’s family magazine. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: Librarians at The Pittsburgh Press work inside the newspaper’s editorial library. <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: Copy readers work in the composing room of The Pittsburgh Press office. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: A view of the editorial department where employees are working on the women’s pages for The Pittsburgh Press. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: Employees at The Pittsburgh Press work in the newspaper’s sports department. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: A librarian assists another employee at The Pittsburgh Press with a microfilm machine. <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: A row of linotype machines inside the composing room of The Pittsburgh Press office. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: An editor proofing the copy at the Pittsburgh Press office. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"May <\/a>
May 27, 1957: An employee at The Pittsburgh Press bundles newspaper for loading onto delivery trucks. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"June <\/a>
June 13, 1957: The bookkeeping or finance department of The Pittsburgh Press. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"June <\/a>
June 13, 1957: The dispatch room at The Pittsburgh Press, home to the national and local advertising copy desk. <\/div> <\/div>
\"October <\/a>
October 1, 1957: A view of the copy desk inside The Pittsburgh Press office. <\/div> <\/div>
\"1957: <\/a>
1957: Employees of The Pittsburgh Press work with color plates in the newspaper’s stereotyping department. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"September <\/a>
September 27, 1957: Dickie Kamerer delivers copies of The Pittsburgh Press to 4806 Glenallen Drive in Whitehall. Kamerer, 14, began delivering the paper in 1954. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"1962: <\/a>
1962: A sketch of the proposed joined office of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Pittsburgh Press at 34 Blvd. of the Allies. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"1962: <\/a>
1962: An artist’s conception for the 1962 addition and renovation of The Pittsburgh Press building to provide offices for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Newspapers are good at telling others’ stories. But their own stories? They\u00a0sometimes struggle.<\/p>\n

Some personal stories we like to tell ourselves, such as the newsroom’s recent move to our new North Side location<\/a> (should I remind you once again: we have windows now?<\/em>), and others\u00a0\u2014\u00a0we let someone else tell them.<\/a><\/p>\n

The move is a milestone that inspired PG colleagues to share their memorable stories from 34 and 50 Boulevard of the Allies (the Post-Gazette and The Pittsburgh Press shared the building but had separate addresses). These stories captured<\/a> characters, ridiculously funny moments and heart-breaking tales from the Downtown building. It contains so much history, no doubt. The dry history you can learn from Wikipedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moving on to not-so-dry parts. A tale of two papers.<\/p>\n

Reporters, editors, photographers and others who shared the building during those three decades between\u00a01962 and\u00a01992, when the PG bought the Press, like to talk about the competitive coexistence. They compare cultures and point out the irreverent rivalry hashed out sometimes in printed words, other times in person. It wasn’t just a silent aura of tolerating one another and hiding intense emotions of Pittsburgh’s journalistic war. For those of us who didn’t live through it, the era almost sounds fun.<\/p>\n

Even in 1992, when the newspapers shared the same strike-threatened building, there were no untouchable topics. PG columnist Peter Leo in his January column didn’t shy away from poking fun at a new feature The\u00a0Press launched: “The Weekend That Was.” How did he dare? By masterfully using self-deprecating humor.<\/p>\n

This is how he starts off taking the Press’ new feature apart:<\/p>\n

This bold, splashy package of bite-sized items, which runs on Mondays, is dedicated to the proposition that Pittsburgh is a fun town.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hang on, I haven’t come to the really<\/strong> outrageous part yet. <\/em><\/p>\n

TW2 promised to chronicle the activity of our more prominent funsters. I could live with that but there’s what provoked my moral outrage: TW2 was presented as something new to unsuspecting Press readers. <\/em><\/p>\n

Now, I am confident you gluttons for punishment who get both newspapers weren’t fooled,” Peter Leo continued. “Call me a company man, but you saw it for what it was: an incredibly belated response to the Post-Gazette’s major junk-journalism initiative of the mid-1980s, a response shamelessly built around — and here’s the really criminal part — thinly veiled knock-offs of two legendary P-G features, Seen and Dossier.<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh, yes, the Press has made a few changes to get around copyright infringement. For example, TW2 presents on Monday what occurred on Pittsburgh’s mad social circuit that weekend. Talk about amateur hour\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

TW2 also takes pictures of people doing something other than posing. How predictable. And it shows off by using adjectives and actually explaining who people are. Give us a breaking. Seen operates on the principle: If you need an explanation of who Seen celebrities are, you shouldn’t be reading the column in the first place\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2026being a family-oriented newspaper, the Press insists on profiling people not known outside their immediate families. <\/em><\/p>\n

To give just one example, a recent TW2 Profile carried this provocative celebrity headline: She’s wife, mother and full-time volunteer,” Yes, it did. When asked to cite her favorite author, the woman replied, “I don’t read that much, to be honest.” She then went to elaborate on her non-reading habit\u2026<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“I tell you,” Peter Leo concluded, “this competition for Pittsburgh’s beautiful people could get ugly.”<\/p>\n

Sometimes, the competition was ugly and it was not for\u00a0Pittsburgh’s beautiful people. Some Post-Gazette folks still remember a memo from Press management warning PG employees \u2014 who worked on the fourth floor (the Press was on the third) \u2014 not to use the Press passenger elevator.<\/p>\n

I told you, it sounded fun. Almost.<\/p>\n

As for the landmark building on Boulevard of the Allies, it was one of America’s last old newspaper buildings and this folder of images captured the essence of it from the height of those days.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

34 Blvd. of the Allies was once home to two newspapers. As of this week, it is now empty.<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesThe newspapers on the Boulevard of the Allies<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[946],"tags":[962,963,964,972,1025,1033,1244,1046],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/The-Pittsburgh-Press-office-1957-002.jpg?fit=950%2C746&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1961,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/03\/15\/the-great-st-patricks-day-flood-of-1936\/","url_meta":{"origin":5677,"position":0},"title":"The Great St. Patrick\u2019s Day Flood of 1936","date":"March 15, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Downtown was underwater: The Triangle was swept by unprecedented flood.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/tumblr_mjntrwbjyX1rr5swxo10_r1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C901&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9441,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2019\/06\/06\/d-day-pittsburgh-newspapers-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":5677,"position":1},"title":"D-Day on Pittsburgh’s front pages","date":"June 6, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Above: The front pages of three Pittsburgh newspapers on June 6, 1944. The Post-Gazette was a morning paper; the Press and Sun-Telegraph were published in the afternoon. It was just after midnight in Pittsburgh on June 6, 1944, when editors at the Post-Gazette would've heard the news. Allied forces had\u2026","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/clipping_2485777-copy-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":304,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/09\/01\/pittsburgh-post-gazettes-newsroom-in-transition\/","url_meta":{"origin":5677,"position":2},"title":"Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s newsroom in transition","date":"September 1, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"This is the same floor that Post-Gazette reporters work on today, but the scene couldn\u2019t be more different.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/tumblr_nb2zr7F8cv1rr5swxo4_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C956&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1233,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/11\/08\/how-did-you-celebrate-thanksgiving\/","url_meta":{"origin":5677,"position":3},"title":"How did you celebrate Thanksgiving?","date":"November 8, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"At \u2018The Digs\u2019 we\u2019re looking for photographs of Pittsburghers celebrating Thanksgiving prior to 1985.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/tumblr_mvx1iwsRJN1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C889&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1141,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/12\/11\/requiem-for-a-newsroom-at-the-pittsburgh-sun-telegraph\/","url_meta":{"origin":5677,"position":4},"title":"\u00a0Requiem for a newsroom at the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph","date":"December 11, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"The newsroom itself was a dump with dingy, uneven pine floors and rattling windows.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/tumblr_mxkb7dlk6U1rr5swxo5_1280.jpg?fit=1008%2C756&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2628,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/08\/17\/nate-smith-rev-jesse-jackson\/","url_meta":{"origin":5677,"position":5},"title":"Nate Smith, Rev. 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