Before the business got up to real-time speed with 24×7 broadcast channels and social media empowering us all to be citizen journalists, the news business was a slow, meticulous process that took time, effort, and manpower. In this series of images we see a slice of the newspaper business before telephones and computers – where every step was conducted with painstaking effort, and the news was probably more careful and thought out reportage.

For better and sometimes for worse we’ve come a long way since what we see here in these photographs that were taken at the Times Of India, Mumbai on the occasion of their Diamond Jubilee in 1898.

Reading room

Binding room

Editor’s room

General Manager’s room

Press room

News composing room

Machine room

Machine room

Machine room

Machine room

Ruling and paging room

Employees of the Times Of India on the occasion of the newspaper’s Diamond Jubilee, November 1898

Times Of India building, opposite St. Thomas Cathedral, connected with Elphinstone Circle

Times of India Building corner of Elphinstone Circle

British Library