This week Easy Reader moved its office for just the fourth time in its four decade history.
The first office, from 1970 to 1974, was the former locker room of the old Riviera Bathhouse on 22nd Street, now the Bottle Inn restaurant. From 1974 until 1990 the office was on the third floor of the Bijou Movie Theater, now a Pilate’s studio. The next 23 years were in a former auto body shop built in 1909, soon to become the U.S. home of a Russian-based web site. The new Easy Reader office is in Pacific Plaza, a modern office complex at 2200 Pacific Coast Highway.
All of the office moves have been technology driven. In the Riviera Bathhouse, stories were typed on IBM Executive typewriters because the Executives had proportionate character spacing. All we needed was an electrical outlet. We moved to the Bijou to make space for the new, room-size Compugraphic film typesetters. We moved to the old, brick auto body shop to accommodate desktop personal computers and the servers required to network them.
Throughout this period, office space was required for a darkroom and for spreading out pages on paste-up banks.
Digital photography turned our darkroom into a supply room. The paste-up banks went out the back door when our printer replaced his stripping room with computer-to-plate technology.
Easy Reader’s new office at 2200 Pacific Coast Highway is largely symbolic. The real office is wherever the reporters, photographers and sales reps log on to the internet.
The internet is popularly viewed as a death knell for newspapers.
Not at this newspaper. The internet has liberated us to write, shoot and sell from anywhere there is internet access. That has been Easy Reader’s purpose since its days in the locker room of the Riviera Bathhouse. That’s what Easy Reader will continue do, from coffee shops, city halls, parks and homes throughout the Beach Cities.
Reflections of our roots
Easy Reader wishes to thank all of the contributors to our 43rd anniversary issue. The paper was founded by volunteers. The writing and photography contest is a way to reinforce our four decade long reflection of the Beach Cities. – Kevin Cody, publisher
