Colorado Historic Newspapers

That’s a Quote! Bookmarks for Promoting Your Local CHNC Titles

By Michael Peever: Published on
Colorado Historic Newspapers

The Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection (CHNC) has been growing at a magnificent rate thanks to partnerships with local organizations such as libraries, archives, and historical societies. We want to help these partner organizations spotlight the resources they have worked so hard to make freely available to all.

Customizable Bookmarks

We love a good bookmark for being a practical object that is inexpensive to produce and helps spread the word. Below are some example templates of doubled-sided bookmarks that may be printed and distributed in local communities (the “back” side would be a quote and the “front” would be a list of newspapers). Find instructions on getting started at the end of this post.

You can quickly see what’s currently available in your area by viewing titles by single or multiple counties. There is also a handy map of titles.

Quotes

There are lots of interesting quotes about newspapers. Many of them are fairly disparaging of journalism and journalists; those might not make for the best bookmarks. Or maybe they would, if ironic wit is your goal!

Remember that humorous-sounding quotes are often made up (as well as falsely attributed to Mark Twain). So, if you plan on printing a quote, it might be worth doing some research to verify the origin. That’s what a good journalist would do.

Here are some interesting ones taken from the sources listed below:

  • “Newspapers—and nearly every western town had at least one—are valuable sources. Often the reporting was good, and just as often the writing was opinionated, a fact one should easily detect, for people of the time—and that included newspaper reporters—made no secret of their opinions. Many a western editor set his type with a six-shooter on the table beside him, ready to back up his opinions, if need be.” – Louis L’Amour
  • “Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.” – Napoleon
  • “Were it left to me to decide if we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” – Thomas Jefferson
  • “Newspapers have degenerated. They may now be absolutely relied upon.” – Oscar Wilde
  • “News is history shot on the wing.” – Gene Fowler
  • “In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs for ever and ever.”  –   Oscar Wilde
  • “Now that is the way to write — peppery and to the point. Mush-and-milk journalism gives me the fan-tods.” – Mark Twain
  • “I don’t care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right.”
    – P. T. Barnum
  • “Journalism is the first rough draft of history.” – Philip L. Graham
  • “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” – Ida B. Wells
  • “To look at the paper is to raise a seashell to one’s ear and to be overwhelmed by the roar of humanity.” – Alain de Botton
  • “I’d love to rise from the grave every ten years or so and go buy a few newspapers.” –
    Luis Buñuel

Sources

Getting Started

If you are interested in having a bookmark design for your community, I am happy to help. We leave the actual printing up to you, but I will provide the customized, print-ready bookmark design in the form of a PDF (the bookmark is designed to measure about 6” x 2” when printed).

Just send me an email to get started. Please specify which titles you would like to spotlight, as well as any preferred design, quotes, and text orientation. If you have some other design or graphics in mind, we can consider using it.

Michael Peever
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