Observed annually on May 7th, National Paste-Up Day is a holiday that remembers a way of laying out pages for publication that has all but gone extinct. Back in the good old days before computerized imaging and desktop publishing, magazines and other publications had to lay out articles by hand so they could be collated into the finished product.

This was a process that required a professional paste-up artist to ensure the copy, photos, and other page elements were all aligned properly. Now, thanks to digital processing, just about anyone can accomplish the same tasks quickly and easily with a very small learning curve required.

The History of National Paste-Up Day

We’re unsure of when this holiday was invented or who invented it, so there’s not much to report here. We’ll continue to look for clues about the creation of this holiday, but until then, we hope everyone enjoys the following section.

The Facts About Magazines

Since paste-up artists worked for magazines (as well as newspapers), we thought we’d take a few moments to give our readers some facts about magazines that we think they might find interesting.

• Magazine readership has actually grown over the last three years.
• Approximately four out of five adults read magazines—although many of those magazines are now digital.
• The average person will spend 43 minutes reading their favorite magazine issue.
• Magazine readership in the 18-35 age range has been growing over the last few years.

Observing National Paste-Up Day

Although the art of doing paste-ups may have seemingly vanished, people still use desktop publishing software to craft their articles. So on this day, let’s all celebrate the people who do that. These individuals can be thanked by giving them a heartfelt shout-out on social media using the hashtag #NationalPasteUpDay.