Still, the big papers had to do something. Their costs were rising fast. By the 1970’s most readers in the United States were in the suburbs, and distribution costs were increasing. The big papers needed to cut labor expenses, to get into print faster, and to regionalize their editions, so their advertising would be more effective.

“Lead Is Dead”

To combine computerized typesetting with letterpress printing is not easily done. Computerized “cold type” works on photographic principles ideally suited for offset platemaking and printing. That means that most of those printers who have already moved to cold type are replacing their letterpresses with offset presses as quickly as they can do so practically and economically.

All of this affects various suppliers to the printing industry. By the 1970’s the cry arose that “lead is dead,” and it became harder to obtain spare parts and other needed items for hot-metal typesetting and letterpress printing. Brass matrices for linotype machines and asbestos paper mats for platemaking became scarce, as suppliers quit making them.

“Owning a letterpress operation is sort of like owning a vacuum tube radio,” said a purchasing agent for a large printing firm. “The radio still works fine, but it’s harder to find those tubes today. Our letterpresses still work, but it is harder to find the parts we need.” No printer is immune from these pressures, “squeezing at the lifeline of letterpress printing,” as one expert put it.