Shipping News
The Shipping News is Freeport’s newspaper. Each morning before dawn, scores of young boys and girls take to the streets, laden with bundles of papers. They drop their loads on a street corner and go about the business of selling their rag, calling out headlines to passers-by, cajoling and heckling, and generally being obnoxious until people buy up all the issues.
Architecture
The Shipping News Company operates out of a large building on the northeast edge of The Docks, just south of the Eastern District and west of Scurvytown. Calame chose this site as it afforded easy access to the more interesting parts of the city. The front of the building contains the Shipping News offices, where reporters write their sensational stories and editors fix the errors and add a few extra details. C.Q. Calame works here as well, writing his regular column, “This Week in Freeport.”
Behind the offices are the printing presses. The Shipping News employs a large staff to run the machines. The company credits itself with inventing movable type, although in truth, Calame’s father discovered the technology on one of his visits to a distant city on the continent.
History
Shipping News got its start 40 years ago, when a young ne’er-do-well named T.K. Calame set out to make his way in the world. Lacking any skills or trades and having no income from his fallen family, he searched for something he could do to keep food in his belly (and a maiden in his bed). One advantage he had was his privileged education. He could read and write, in fact quite well. He began with a series of pamphlets calling out corruption in the government, uncovering society scandals, and reporting on a variety of current events. At first, he pasted his writings on the sides of buildings and on fingerposts, and it wasn’t long before people would collect in front of his weekly news. It seemed Freeporters liked to be in the know, and they preferred Calame’s reliable tales over the fabricated tales spun by the rumormongers and criers who had no meaningful social connections.
Calame realized he could turn his position into a fortune. He convinced a few nobles, merchants, and ship captains to invest in his growing business, and before he knew it, he had a full-fledged operation in The Docks. He sold just a few copies at first, but as word spread, Freeporters clamored for the latest issue, forcing Calame to step up production, hire reporters and editors, and invest in more expensive printing equipment. By the time he was old and gray, his Shipping News had become Freeport’s sole source of information, and the era of rumormongers had gone the way of the Valossans.
The Shipping News evolved from a single sheet of paper with muddy print into a full-fledged newspaper, broken up into sections including classified, society, current events, weather, and much more. C.Q. Calame, T.K.’s grandson, pushed the paper forward, tripling the readership. Shipping News’ reporters hit the streets all over the city, dredging up sensational stories, reporting on rumors, and writing inflammatory editorials about key figures in the city.
Today, the Shipping News is still concerned with getting its facts straight, but if its reporters can shade the truth to sell more issues, all the better. If they get a few details wrong, they can always print a retraction in the next issue.
Parent Location
Owner
Comments