Departing editor closes with –30– style

Saturday was night metro editor Gary Taylor's last day at the Herald, and he closed it out in true style.

One of the duties for the night editor is to leave a "nitenote" for the incoming crew each morning. At 12:06 a.m. today, Gary left some good thoughts for following up on several stories, left tips to check that he and the police reporter couldn't confirm, then signed out:

Gary
–30–

–30– has long been the standard used by journalists to indicate the end of a story. According to Wikipedia, there are many theories about how the usage came into being,[1]e.g. It was telegraphic shorthand to signify the end of a story in the Civil War era.[2] Other theories include that the "-30-" originated when stories were written in longhand; X marked the end of a sentence, XX the end of a paragraph, and XXX meant the end of a story. The Roman numerals XXX translate to 30.

All I know is, Gary was a UPI guy years ago in Texas, and his career is full of rich journalistic traditions. A five-gallon tip of the hat to you, Gary. This –30– opens a whole new chapter for you.

-- Joan