Sherry mentioned in a post below that adding or substituting color on a page between editions of the Sunday paper is complicated and said that Arlice or I would explain it.
Well, just call me Explainer Dude (OK, please don’t).
There are several ways switching color can be an iffy proposition. In the case of promotions at the top of Page 1A, the images often are “drop-outs,†where the designer uses Photoshop to remove all but the subject of the photo. That process can take 20-30 minutes, precious time on deadline.
If the photos on a page change, it’s rarely a simple matter of swapping one photo for another. If the photo is a different size or, more problematic, vertical instead of horizontal or vice versa, it affects the rest of the page. When that occurs, how much of each story is on the cover can change, necessitating that the jump pages be updated, as well.
Color changes also affect the pressroom and our platemakers once the pages leave the newsroom.
Each color page requires four colors of ink — cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow and black — and plates for the presses for each of them. Where the plates are attached in the press is shaped like a drum, so for each page we need two plates, one for each side of the drum. In the case of a color page, eight plates must be made then fitted onto the press. I’m sure you can understand that this is not a quick undertaking.
With all that’s involved, you can see why it’s not always feasible to make quick, color-related changes between editions.
— Explainer Dude’s alter ego, Michael