#FlashbackFriday: The Year the Exchange Post Debuted (It Didn’t Start as the Exchange Post)
On July 1, 1955—67 years ago today—the first edition of The Exchange Post was published, although it wasn’t yet called The Exchange Post.
One of the front-page articles in the first edition, which kicked off the Exchange’s 60th-anniversary month, was “Employee Contest Opens to Name Monthly Paper.” The first edition did have a name—Exchange Service News—but the folks behind it were looking for something more clever.
“Contestants should remember that originality of their suggested name will be the major influence for consideration,” said the story, which noted that the contest was open to all Exchange associates. “Many employee newspapers and magazines incorporate in the name of the publication some identification of the sponsoring company.”
The article went on to say that the company name as often combined with a word commonly used to reporting the news. Several examples of these were listed … but not “post.”
The first edition, which was four pages, also contained articles about associates receiving awards for their length of service (six had worked with the Exchange for more than 30 years—more than half the Exchange’s existence at the time) and for making suggestions for new and more efficient ways of working.
There was also a story about new Exchange facilities opening at Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois. The facilities include a cafeteria named the Icarian Room, named for Icarus, the youth in Greek mythology who flew so close to the sun that his wings melted. A mural in the cafeteria depicted scenes from the Icarus story.
“The Exchange Post” was first used in the September 1955 edition. Frank Benjamin, a clerk in the Procurement Division, submitted the winning name and received a $25 U.S. Savings Bond. Benjamin said he suggested the name because of its twist on “post,” a word familiar to Exchange associates. “And if the term post is used to identify with such great newspapers as the Denver Post and the Boston Post, I figured it was good enough for our employee newspaper,” he added.
The first edition of the full-color, magazine-style Exchange Post, from July 1998. This format continued through December 2016. In January 2017, The Exchange Post became a daily, all-digital product.
The Exchange Post remained in a newspaper format through June 1998, although there were occasional changes in design, typography and content. The first color photos didn’t start showing up until the spring of 1997, and even then, the majority of the photos were in black and white.
That changed in July 1998, when the Exchange Post went to a full-color, glossy, magazine-style format with dozens of color photos, especially in the “Around AAFES” roundup that covered Exchange doings worldwide at the end of each issue. Many similar photos now appear in the Exchange Flickr, which contains nearly 35,000 photos and continues to grow.
The magazine format lasted through December 2016, when the last printed issue was published (you can view a pdf of it here). The all-digital format, designed for access on computers, smartphones and tablets, allowed for more timely coverage.
More than 60 years of printed Exchange Posts are archived in bound books at headquarters in Dallas. Much of the material for #FlashbackFridays comes from those archives.
great