You may notice the name "Kramer Paper" thrown around on this blog. The about page mentions this in passing, but if anyone wants a more detailed history, read on.
The “Kramer Paper” name dates back to 2000. When I was a boy, I drew up a quick one page “newspaper” for us to read on a plane ride to Tennessee. Over the next few years, the Kramer Paper grew and changed. For a while, I ran the Kramer Paper as our family’s official newsletter, and mailed it to relatives across the country. Over the years I lost interest, and with a thankfully unpublished passive-aggressive editorial, I mothballed the Paper indefinitely.
In 2013, while away at college I decided to revive the Kramer Paper through a blog serving as an online edition, along with a restored print newsletter. I briefly considered retiring the print publication entirely, but found that much of what I enjoy about this hobby is running and formatting the Pages document, something a blog can not do. Ironically, it was the blog, not the print newsletter, that ended up getting retired, as the Kramer Paper continued to grow.
The newer content, while more enjoyable to write and read, was longer and more detailed, resulting in longer newsletters and more expensive postage. After a few discussions, I decided that the Paper had, at least partially, outgrown the print publication. In response to this, I launched this second blog, under a different name, a partial rebranding. Nevertheless, the Kramer Paper still exists, and continues to operate, publishing the best of the content I put on this blog. 20+ years of name recognition seemed too much to toss out now.
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| Issue 77, a recent print issue of the Kramer Paper |
In addition to its real history, the Kramer Paper has an entire semi-fictional corporate history as well, (based on what was going on with it at the time) depicting it as if it were an actual media corporation. The history came complete with mergers, and even a transportation subsidiary called Mail-link. (Mail-Link was the name for the bike route I used to drop the envelopes off at the post office, and I made little placards for my bicycle).
Later, while looking back on this, I compiled these artifacts into a sort of museum, and made a few new ones as well to keep the story going. I made business cards with a fictional address, corresponding to a building on a model train layout that bears the Paper's logo. I created "delivered by bicycle" inserts, and seals for envelopes. I even printed out new Mail-Link placards to put on my bicycle while running Kramer Paper-related errands. This name of this blog will no doubt appear in the Kramer paper's ongoing, semi-fictional corporate history
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