By PATRICK S. KELLEY
The Emporia Gazette

Reprinted with permission.

Photo of 100th aniversary celebration

ONE HUNDRED YEARS ago today, The Gazette made a business deal. A certificate attesting to that deal still hangs on the wall in an office at 517 Merchant St. It says:

This is to certify that W.A. White is a member of The Associated Press, and, as such, is entitled to a news report solely for publication in the Emporia Gazette, an evening newspaper published in the English language at Emporia, Kansas.

At the time, the AP was 55 years old and turning into an ambitious and energetic international news cooperative. White’s Gazette was only 8 years old.

In spite of the age difference, the union of The Gazette and the AP has been a happy and balanced partnership. the AP’s job is to supply news from its staff and members to The Gazette. The Gazette’s job, as one of those members, is to supply news to the AP.

That was spelled out on the certificate:

... Subject to the obligation on the part of said member, in accordance with the By-Laws, to furnish for the use of the Corporation the news of the following described territory, viz: the City of Emporia, Kansas, and the territory adjacent thereto within a radius of 30 miles.

The AP news was first delivered to Emporia by telegram and telephone. Then the Teletype machine took over. It sat for decades in a corner of the newsroom, shaking the floor as it typed out stories from around the world.

The Teletype’s standard speed of 66 words a minute set the tempo for the workday and regulated the heartbeat of anyone working nearby.

The Teletype was finally replaced by computers and satellite dishes. But for years after it was gone, veteran newsroom staff, in moments of distraction, would tap their fingers or their pencils in the rhythm of the old machine.

From telegram to satellite dish, the flow of AP news to Emporia has not been seriously interrupted in 100 years.

Before the advent of the magic of the Internet, before television — even before commercial radio — the AP was sending a river of news throughout the world, inaugurating the Age of Information. Emporians have been drinking deep from that river for a century now — news of war and peace, of disasters, politics and the human comedy. No one drinks from that river without becoming better-informed and, perhaps, wiser.

Today, a little party at the office celebrated the centennial of a fine partnership. Paul Stevens, chief of the AP’s Kansas City bureau, came down with (AP people including Jenelle Stamper, Cliff Schiappa, Joe Weydert and Wes Clark). That was pleasing, because the people at the bureau have been more than The Gazette’s partners for many years. They have been our friends.

Like good friends, they brought a little gift to the party — a refurbished Associated Press Teletype, just like the one that used to clack away in the newsroom.

The Teletype joins other leftovers — type cases, a Linotype machine and a job press — in The Gazette’s museum. But the machine is not just a relic of the past.

It is a memento of a fine partnership that has brought the world to Emporia — and Emporia to the world. (Feb. 18, 2003)