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Jon Newhall
Signal Publisher


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Photos (2x2-inch negatives) by Cheryl(?) Riley / The Signal.

June 11, 1968 — Publisher Jon Newhall works at his desk at The Newhall Signal and Saugus Enterprise, which occupied both the Perkins Court ("red Signal buildings") at 22508 6th Street and the Trueblood building next door at 22504 6th Street (SW corner 6th and Railroad Avenue). Facing the courtyard of Perkins Court from the street, Jon's office is the second unit on the left.

Like his twin brother Tony, Jonathan (NMN) Newhall graduated from Stanford University in 1964 with a degree in economics. That same year, he joined his the newspaper that his parents, Scott and Ruth Newhall, had purchased in 1963. (Tony joined the paper in 1966 after a stint in the Peace Corps; older brother Skip Newhall went a different direction, earning a doctorate in applied mathematics from CalTech and making a career as a research scientist at JPL.)

Jon, Tony and their father traded off publisher and editor titles until 1970 when Jon returned to Berkeley, where he had lived previously. In the 1970s he wrote for (and ran) news agencies in San Francisco. Beginning in the 1980s, he did a different kind of writing as a computer software developer in the health care industry.

Signal Staff Mugs: Back in the days of film, when they returned to the office from a photo assignment, Signal photographers frequently "finished off" an incomplete roll of film by shooting candid photos and mug shots of other Signal staffers. Little did they know the fruits of their impromptu tomfoolery would one day become treasured historic images.



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According to former Signal Publisher Tony Newhall (8/17/2019):

The building right at the corner of Railroad and 6th Street was owned by the Truebloods; it was managed by Gus Trueblood. When I first arrived here in July 1966, that building housed our Composing Room (cold-type pasteup by then). The old press had been pulled out in 1963. Also in that Trueblood building was our cold-type typesetting equipment, plus the darkroom (for editorial shots and halftones) and the circulation department (mailing machine and circulation manager's office). In the room to west of these was our display ad sales staff and the bookkeeping department.

The next building, separate, to the west, and almost butting up against this — was owned by A.B. Perkins. That building [Perkins Court] housed our front office, including an Old-Western bar where we sold subscriptions and classified ads. If you walked through a hallway to the south, you'd enter our City Room, where the editor supervised 3-4 reporters.

If you went out the door to the outside walkway, you could enter the Publisher/General Manager's office (which in 1963 was Carmen Sylva's Dance Studio). Directly west, across the walkway, was A.B. Perkins' office.

By the way, the Truebloods' building at the corner was destroyed by fire on January 3, 1969 [sic: just after midnight on the 4th], which forced us to buy out our competition, the Record Press (from Opie Tucker). Its offices were located across town, on Spruce between Lyons and 11th, next to the American Theater. In that building we sold ads, developed photos, and composed the paper from January 1969 to about June 1973, at which time we moved those departments into the just-vacated Sheriffs [Office] at the corner of 6th and San Fernando Road [today's Main Street].

 


Signal Photo Archive, Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society collection.
SIGNAL STAFF MUGS

SEE ALSO:
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Randy Wicks Cartoon Collection

Scott & Ruth Newhall


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Jon Newhall 1968

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Lionel Rolfe 1968

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Karen Bonnett 1968

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