Teal or No Teal – What really is black and white and read all over?

#Column: What do tequila, government meetings, and Key deer have in common? - A close up of a sign - Logo

Color.

Just one simple color. If another publication could have accurately reproduced an advertiser’s specific color, then the newspaper you’re now reading may never have come to exist.

Flash back to late summer, 2003. A former radio station manager and program director/musician had formed an advertising agency. One of their clients had a specific request for a certain shade of teal that translated as C=100, M=20, Y=31, and K=10 in CMYK color values. (WARNING: a brief yet in depth look at four-color and spot color printing is about to follow. Read on at your own risk.) In the four-color process, C stands for cyan (a mostly blue color), M for magenta (a dark pinkish red), Y for yellow, and K for black (or “key.”) This four-color scheme, in all its myriad combinations, is the basis for most professional color printing.

By contrast, the color emanating from your computer monitor or TV is measured as RGB (Red Green Blue) values. I digress.

Anyway, this publication was having a difficult time printing the required shade of teal as a spot color on the advertiser’s page. No matter how hard they tried, or how many times the ad was printed, or how hard they tried to convince the agency partners otherwise, teal always came out looking like cyan. (It might not seem like a big deal to you, but teal and cyan are worlds apart, as are puce, chartreuse, and mauve.) In a fit of color-induced rage, the former station manager looked at the former program director (but still musician) and said, “If these local papers can’t print the right color, let’s start one that will!”

Anyway, from these humble beginnings ten years ago sprang the family of Weekly Newspapers you now hold in your hands. There are a couple of things worth mentioning that have been part of the paper’s mission since Volume I, Number 1. The first is the dedication to covering the good things about our locals. The people who live and work here are the heart and soul of our community, and when they do well, that’s what’s newsworthy to the Weekly. Second is that the Weekly has always strived to publish a quality, colorful piece on decent paper stock, avoiding the cheap, thin newsprint and smudgy ink that wants to be on your hands more than on the page.

The first several issues were hand-rolled, bagged, and delivered by the skeleton staff. Our original salesperson persuaded her high school-aged daughter and friends to help out with the promise of free pizza. In the middle of the night, we all set out for different parts of town on what had to be our first-ever paper routes.

Since then, two of the original three partners have moved on while one (me) still plays music around the islands, writes this column, and publishes Marathon & The Middle Florida Keys Magazine. The original salesperson (Julie Johnson) now publishes Time Out magazine, while her daughter (Natalie) is a local real estate agent. Jason and Kate Koler bought the Weekly Newspapers seven years ago, and have turned it into the quality publication you now hold in your hands, with a little help from their amazing staff.

Happy 10th birthday, Weekly Newspapers! Join one who was there at the very beginning (me) in raising a glass, coffee mug, or whatever (if you’re driving, put the newspaper down on the seat beside you and place both hands on the wheel) and drink a toast to this community newspaper’s continued success.

 

Very few towns or cities could ever claim that their Mayor was a smokin' hot guitar player. The island city of Marathon in the Florida Keys is one of those towns. While politics is a temporary call to service, music is a life sentence. John Bartus, a more-than-four-decade full-time professional musician, singer, and songwriter, continues to raise the bar with his groundbreaking solo acoustic show. It’s easy to catch John on one of his more than 200 shows a year throughout the Keys on his Perpetual Island Tour. His CD releases include After The Storm, Keys Disease 10th Anniversary Remaster, and Live From the Florida Keys Vol. 2. John’s music is available wherever you download or stream your music.