This linotype machine is a monster with 28,000 parts ... as long as all the news is good news. While he'll print sad news, like obituaries, Coombs said the paper doesn't really "do" bad news.

My first job was at a weekly paper with a big warehouse out back filled with hot metal printing machines. The paper was printed by more modern methods by then, but the wondrous contraptions out ...

but it survives in 15 towns thanks to a printing press still churning out newspapers in Liberal, Kansas. The light blue machine takes up most of a warehouse, about the size of a school bus ...