Club thanks Washington Post for providing historic newspaper mats, offset plates

The National Press Club thanked the Washington Post earlier this month for supplying historic newspaper mats and offset plates that adorn the Club's walls.

National Press Club President Angela Greiling Keane presented a plaque expressing the Club's gratitude to Washington Post Assistant Plant Manager Roddy MacPherson and the Springfield, Va., printing plant manager, Frank Abbott at the March 4 meeting of the House and Bar Committee.

The plaque recognizes "over 30 years of service enhancing the Club's heritage and decor." The Post is the only newspaper that has both a mat and an offset plate of the same edition on the Club's iconographic walls: The August 9, 1974, edition reporting President Richard Nixon's resignation.

MacPherson, who retires next year, explained how new technology makes future production of other papers' offset plates impossible. The Post has been providing this service since the reconfigured Club walls featured both mats and offset plates in 1985.