Editing Punched tape (section)

=== Newspaper industry ===
Punched paper tape was used by the newspaper industry until the mid-1970s or later. Newspapers were typically set in hot lead by devices like [[Linotype machine]]s. With the wire services coming into a device that would punch paper tape, rather than the Linotype operator having to retype all the incoming stories, the paper tape could be put into a paper tape reader on the Linotype and it would create the lead slugs without the operator re-typing the stories. This also allowed newspapers to use devices, such as the [[Friden Flexowriter]], to convert typing to lead type via tape. Even after the demise of Linotype and hot lead typesetting, many early phototypesetter devices utilized paper tape readers.

If an error was found at one position on the six-level tape, that character could be turned into a null character to be skipped by punching out the remaining non-punched positions with what was known as a “chicken plucker". It looked like a strawberry stem remover that, pressed with thumb and forefinger, could punch out the remaining positions, one hole at a time.