For history buffs like him and me, that’s a great thing.

When I inherited the publisher’s office on the ground floor of The News in downtown Alpena, I inherited five filing cabinets, five desk drawers, and multiple filing racks filled to the brim with file folders and paraphernalia detailing the history of The News specifically and journalism in general, along with the broader history of Northeast Michigan.

That’s not including the history tucked away in multiple storage rooms throughout the building, including hardbound copies of The News dating back to the 1930s stacked in a storage space we affectionately call “the morgue”.

From my office, you can trace the history of newspaper production.

News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley The spines of hardbound editions of The News from the 1930s are seen recently in a storage room called “the morgue” at The News offices in downtown Alpena.

Hanging on the wall are types from the old typesetting days, when individual letters had to be arranged backwards in a rack before a typesetter slathered them with ink and pressed them against paper to make a newspaper.

Sitting on a shelf in my office is an antique Underwood Standard typewriter — though not specifically used in The News, it represents the type of machine on which our early reporters would have composed their stories.

Tucked in a drawer, I found an old cut-and-paste layout page for a double truck (meaning it spans two full pages of newsprint) advertisement, probably from the 1980s or early 1990s. Newspaper composers in that time literally cut stories and photos and graphics out on paper and pasted them onto larger sheets of paper that were then photographed and turned into film to make plates for the press.

Today, I type this column on a laptop on my desk. Later, I’ll use another computer to compose the Northern Lifestyles page on which you’ll read this story. Then I’ll send a digital version of the page to another computer that will communicate with a computer-to-plate machine that will make the plates for the press.

Elsewhere within the files left behind for me, I found more artifacts detailing the business of The News throughout the years:

News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley A framed copy of an 1864 edition of the Thunder Bay Monitor, one of the only known copies of Alpena’s first newspaper, is seen recently in the newsroom of The News offices in downtown Alpena.

∫ An advertising rate schedule from 1937, showing a year’s worth of advertising cost as little as $28.35 per week

∫ A 1996 analysis by former publisher Bill Speer and then-circulation manager James Austin about The News’ then-recent conversion from afternoon to morning delivery

∫ A 2000 analysis of The News’ first Business Expo

∫ Rack cards — posters that would get tucked into newspaper vending machines — promoting stories about Alpena’s early-2000s attempt to woo a Boeing manufacturing facility to our area

∫ The original mockup of a drawing by Bob LeFevre for an Alpena News T-shirt

News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley An April 1950 edition of The News is seen recently in the publisher’s office at the newspaper.

∫ Original mockups for Alpena News envelopes with a drawing of The News building on it

Among The News’ most prized possessions in its archives are copies of old newspapers, including a January 1864 edition of the Thunder Bay Monitor, one of the only known copies of Alpena’s first newspaper, printed not long after whites first settled the area and years before Alpena became a city.

Also in the collection are an August 1879 edition of the Weekly Reporter (cost 50 cents for a year’s subscription), a June 1897 edition of the Alpena Argus, a March 1914 edition of the Alpena Daily Echo and a March 1916 edition of the Alpena Argus-Pioneer.

Those papers would merge and consolidate over the years, eventually leaving only The Alpena Evening News, later The Alpena News, standing.

And I have plenty of old copies of The News, too, frayed and yellowing, including:

December 1954 newspaper News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley A December 1954 edition of The News is seen recently in the publisher’s office at the newspaper.

∫ A June 1917 edition that includes a 1A story about the chief of police chasing down a draft dodger

∫ A January 1950 edition with a blaring 1A headline about Alpena speed skater Mona Donnelly competing in nationals

∫ A December 1964 edition featuring a story about a U.S.-23 modernization and M-32 paving project included in the state’s plans for the following year

It’s easy to think of the newspaper as something to be read and then recycled every day, but the collection of archives begun by my predecessor and continued by me shows a newspaper is quite a bit more than that.

Newspapers are the first recorders of history.

News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley A December 1956 edition of The News is seen recently in the publisher’s office at the newspaper.

A century from now, some newspaper publisher will pull out frayed and yellowed copies of the editions we print today and peruse them for a look back at what life was like for Northeast Michiganders in the year 2022.

Nowhere else will offer such tangible, complete records of our history.

And that’s as good a reason as any to support your local paper now.

Justin A. Hinkley can be reached at 989-354-3112 or jhinkley@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinHinkley.

News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley A December 1964 edition of The News is seen recently in the publisher’s office at the newspaper.

News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley A June 1917 edition of The News is seen recently in the publisher’s office at the newspaper.

News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley A mockup design for a T-shirt, drawn by Bob LeFevre of Bob’s Bullpen fame, is seen recently in the publisher’s office at The News in downtown Alpena.

News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley A page from the cut-and-paste days of newspaper layout is seen recently in the publisher’s office at The Alpena News in downtown Alpena.

News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley A rack card promoting stories about the region’s early-2000s attempt to woo a Boeing manufacturing facility to Northeast Michigan is seen recently in the publisher’s office at The News in downtown Alpena.

News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley An old, metal newspaper tube (they’re made of plastic now) is seen recently in the newsroom at The News offices in downtown Alpena.

News Photo by Justin A. Hinkley The dusty keys of an Underwood Standard typewriter are seen recently in the publisher’s office at The Alpena News.