I am sad to read that Weekend Post is to be closed. This ends my association and that of thousands of other readers with the Evening Post, which was closed in 2000.
Weekend Post was the Saturday edition of the Evening Post.
My association with Weekend Post goes back to my childhood and I have certainly read almost every edition of the paper for at least 50 years.
My family had the then EP Herald and Weekend Post delivered to our home, and my father bought the Evening Post on his way home from work every weekday.
When I was old enough to turn the pages, I would look at the pictures — copying “reading” like my parents.
From primary school days, I would read all the newspapers that came to our home.
It is not surprising, then, that I became a journalist.
While studying for a BJourn degree at Rhodes University, I worked as a student reporter on the Evening Post in the 1976/1977 summer holiday.
Then I was appointed as a news reporter on the paper in February 1978.
In those days, Weekend Post was an integral part of the Evening Post.
Reporting staff worked on Weekend Post articles after the daily Evening Post deadlines.
When I first worked in the newsroom, we worked a six-day week with Saturday mornings dedicated to Weekend Post.
News reporters were also required to help take down sports results when the sports copy typists were busy — those were the days of typewriters, linotype machines and typesetters.
Until about the early 2000s, Weekend Post was produced mostly on a Saturday, with the press running three, then later four, editions.
City Sport went on sale in the late afternoon. Queues of people would wait outside Newspaper House to get their hands on the paper as the big attraction was the swap column.
You had to put “for what have you” in your advertisement, but really everyone was selling their unwanted goods — from cars to furniture to wedding dresses — for cash.
Those were long before the days of easy and free internet advertising. There would be four or five pages of advertisements.
The “smalls” were also popular for announcing babies’ births, 21sts, engagements, marriages, deaths and funerals.
In 1980, I moved to the subediting room and then Saturday was a busy, busy day.
Initially we worked a full day, from 8.30am to 7 or 8pm, with a lunch break.
The subeditors, or subs, handled every kind of article, from news to sports results.
The Saturday morning arrangements of subs were changed when an early edition was brought in.
Most of that edition was edited on a Friday, with the last couple of news and sports pages being produced before the noon deadline.
The news and sports pages were extensively “replated” between the early edition and City Sport to include on-the-day news and the popular picture page of Saturday events.
Once the City Sport edition deadline was over, the subs worked on the big Sport Final edition.
School and club sports reports and results were very popular among readers.
Then the subs worked on a partial remake of that edition for East London readers, including Border sport and news reports.
In the 1980s, I “chief subbed” the Weekend Post news pages, meaning I was in charge of the subs, laying out the pages and processing the stories.
In those days, the feature copy was printed in a separate pullout supplement and produced by the features staff.
The features were later incorporated into the main section of Weekend Post.
Another popular feature of the paper was the property supplement, listing properties for sale and show houses. Again, internet advertising killed that paper advertising.
In the early 2000s, management decided to do away with on-the-day production of Weekend Post and the paper was then produced on a Friday, to be sold on a Saturday.
Sadly, I think that was the first death knell of Weekend Post.
After the closing of the Evening Post, I moved on to work on The Herald and later the production hub that handled production of a number of community newspapers as well as The Herald, Weekend Post and Daily Dispatch.
In addition to writing news stories for Weekend Post in my early years of journalism, I also over the years wrote many film, theatre, cabaret and book reviews, as well travel articles.
I left the production hub in 2019, but I continue to read The Herald and Weekend Post.
The Post’s demise will leave a huge hole in my Saturdays. Perhaps I will keep the features supplement that will be inserted in the Friday Herald to read on a Saturday.
HeraldLIVE
LETTER | Post’s demise will leave a huge hole on Saturdays
Image: SUPPLIED
I am sad to read that Weekend Post is to be closed. This ends my association and that of thousands of other readers with the Evening Post, which was closed in 2000.
Weekend Post was the Saturday edition of the Evening Post.
My association with Weekend Post goes back to my childhood and I have certainly read almost every edition of the paper for at least 50 years.
My family had the then EP Herald and Weekend Post delivered to our home, and my father bought the Evening Post on his way home from work every weekday.
When I was old enough to turn the pages, I would look at the pictures — copying “reading” like my parents.
From primary school days, I would read all the newspapers that came to our home.
It is not surprising, then, that I became a journalist.
While studying for a BJourn degree at Rhodes University, I worked as a student reporter on the Evening Post in the 1976/1977 summer holiday.
Then I was appointed as a news reporter on the paper in February 1978.
In those days, Weekend Post was an integral part of the Evening Post.
Reporting staff worked on Weekend Post articles after the daily Evening Post deadlines.
When I first worked in the newsroom, we worked a six-day week with Saturday mornings dedicated to Weekend Post.
News reporters were also required to help take down sports results when the sports copy typists were busy — those were the days of typewriters, linotype machines and typesetters.
Until about the early 2000s, Weekend Post was produced mostly on a Saturday, with the press running three, then later four, editions.
City Sport went on sale in the late afternoon. Queues of people would wait outside Newspaper House to get their hands on the paper as the big attraction was the swap column.
You had to put “for what have you” in your advertisement, but really everyone was selling their unwanted goods — from cars to furniture to wedding dresses — for cash.
Those were long before the days of easy and free internet advertising. There would be four or five pages of advertisements.
The “smalls” were also popular for announcing babies’ births, 21sts, engagements, marriages, deaths and funerals.
In 1980, I moved to the subediting room and then Saturday was a busy, busy day.
Initially we worked a full day, from 8.30am to 7 or 8pm, with a lunch break.
The subeditors, or subs, handled every kind of article, from news to sports results.
The Saturday morning arrangements of subs were changed when an early edition was brought in.
Most of that edition was edited on a Friday, with the last couple of news and sports pages being produced before the noon deadline.
The news and sports pages were extensively “replated” between the early edition and City Sport to include on-the-day news and the popular picture page of Saturday events.
Once the City Sport edition deadline was over, the subs worked on the big Sport Final edition.
School and club sports reports and results were very popular among readers.
Then the subs worked on a partial remake of that edition for East London readers, including Border sport and news reports.
In the 1980s, I “chief subbed” the Weekend Post news pages, meaning I was in charge of the subs, laying out the pages and processing the stories.
In those days, the feature copy was printed in a separate pullout supplement and produced by the features staff.
The features were later incorporated into the main section of Weekend Post.
Another popular feature of the paper was the property supplement, listing properties for sale and show houses. Again, internet advertising killed that paper advertising.
In the early 2000s, management decided to do away with on-the-day production of Weekend Post and the paper was then produced on a Friday, to be sold on a Saturday.
Sadly, I think that was the first death knell of Weekend Post.
After the closing of the Evening Post, I moved on to work on The Herald and later the production hub that handled production of a number of community newspapers as well as The Herald, Weekend Post and Daily Dispatch.
In addition to writing news stories for Weekend Post in my early years of journalism, I also over the years wrote many film, theatre, cabaret and book reviews, as well travel articles.
I left the production hub in 2019, but I continue to read The Herald and Weekend Post.
The Post’s demise will leave a huge hole in my Saturdays. Perhaps I will keep the features supplement that will be inserted in the Friday Herald to read on a Saturday.
HeraldLIVE
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