What is the typographers’ trap and why do other print journalists need to know about it? A thoughtful post on skills, careers and a changing industry from BetaTales:
It describes how a group by wrongly trying to save the jobs of its members at the same time destroys its own profession.
Typographers used to hold an important position in editorial newspaper production. In the old days this was the group typesetting the newspaper pages.
Then the production process was digitalised. Suddenly anybody with basic design and computer skills could do the tasks the typographers used to have a monopoly of doing.
In fact the need for typographers in newspaper production was more or less wiped out in a very short time frame. As a result the profession disappeared in most countries.