-30- has been traditionally used by journalists in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
to indicate the end of a story or article that is submitted for
editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written language, written, Image editing, visual, Audio engineer, audible, or Film editing, cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing p ...
and
typesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text for publication, display, or distribution by means of arranging physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or '' glyphs'' in digital systems representing '' characters'' (letters and other ...
. It is commonly employed when writing on
deadline and sending bits of the story at a time, via telegraphy, teletype, electronic transmission, or paper copy, as a necessary way to indicate the end of the article.
It is also found at the end of
press release
A press release (also known as a media release) is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing new information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public releas ...
s.
The origin of the term is unknown.
One theory is that the journalistic employment of -30- originated from the number's use during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
era in the
92 Code of
telegraphic shorthand, where it signified the end of a transmission
and that it found further favor when it was included in the
Phillips Code
The Phillips Code is a brevity code (shorthand) compiled and expanded in 1879 by Walter P. Phillips (then of the Associated Press) for the rapid transmission of telegraph messages, including press reports.
Overview
It was compiled in 1879 by ...
of abbreviations and short markings for common use that was developed by the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City.
Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
wire service. Telegraph operators familiar with numeric
wire signal
A wire signal is a brevity code used by telegraphers to save time and cost when sending long messages. The best-known code was the 92 Code adopted by Western Union in 1859. The code was designed to reduce bandwidth consumption over telegraph lin ...
s such as the 92 Code used these
railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
codes to provide
logistics
Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...
instructions and
train orders, and they adapted them to notate an article's priority or confirm its transmission and receipt. This
metadata
Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:
* Descriptive ...
would occasionally appear in print when
typesetters included the codes in newspapers,
especially the code for "No morethe end", which was presented as on a
typewriter
A typewriter is a Machine, mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of Button (control), keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an i ...
.
See also
*
Tombstone (typography)
In mathematics, the tombstone, halmos, end-of-proof, or Q.E.D. symbol "∎" (or "□") is a symbol used to denote the end of a Mathematical proof, proof, in place of the traditional abbreviation "Q.E.D." for the Latin phrase "''Q.E.D., quod erat ...
*
End-of-file
In computing, end-of-file (EOF) is a condition in a computer operating system where no more data can be read from a data source. The data source is usually called a file or stream.
Details
In the C standard library, the character-reading functi ...
*
End-of-transmission character
In telecommunications, an End-of-Transmission character (EOT) is a transmission (telecommunications), transmission control character. Its intended use is to indicate the conclusion of a transmission that may have included one or more texts and an ...
*
###
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:-30-
Typesetting
Journalism terminology