Work on the preparation of the Olympic programmes began more than a year before the Opening Ceremony, but the nature of the task was such that, if all the preparatory work had been done as much in advance as possible, there would still have been a hectic rush in the last two weeks and during the Games. This was due to the late hour at which entry lists became available, and because certain draws had to be made and officials appointed even as late as the evening before the events.

The first estimates of programme quantities were compiled in the summer of 1947, and were based upon 80 per cent. purchasing of the estimated attendance. These quantities were subject to slight amendments. In fact, during the Games, it was found that 80 per cent. was substantially too high a figure. It had also been agreed early in 1947 that there should be separate daily programmes for each sport and not a combined daily programme. The reason for this was fourfold :-

(1) It was hoped to secure additional revenue and to incur fewer costs.
(2) The various events were at more scattered venues than had been the case at
      Berlin.
(3) The printers' task would have been considerably greater if they had had to
      produce vast quantities of a large combined programme.
(4) It would have been difficult to justify to the Paper Control the quantities of paper
      which would have been necessary to produce a combined programme.
      Discussions took place with the Technical Representatives for each sport
      as to whether they needed a programme each day, or whether a combined 
      programme to cover all their events would suffice. It was decided that the
      following events should have a combined programme :-

Canoeing, Equestrian, Fencing, Gymnastics, Modern Pentathlon, Shooting, Weightlifting.

The only event in which this decision was subject to doubt was the Fencing, which went on for 13 days and in which it was impossible to include some of the first round draws and any subsequent draws. In view, however, of the very limited sale and the disproportionate cost and printing effort involved, it was decided to produce only one combined programme for this event. It was originally agreed that the Yachting programme should be " combined " and not " daily," as the conditions of the contest were such that the only change from day to day was the insertion of the previous day's results. In view, however, of the representations of the Torquay Corporation, who were anxious to have a new production available daily, it was later agreed to reverse this decision.

Covers

The programme cover was approved at the Executive Committee meeting of January 6th, 1948. The design, prepared by Messrs. McCorquodale & Co., Ltd. was standard throughout, but the colour varied from day to day to prevent confusion. All programmes for the same day, however, were of the same colour, whatever the sport. With the acceptance of the design and the provisional acceptance of the schedule of quantities, the printers were anxious to start work. It was not, however, until April, 1948, that it was possible to complete and pass the proofs of the remaining material for the cover pages.
This consisted of:-
(i) Metric conversion tables where appropriate (it was finally decided they were
     necessary only for weightlifting and athletics).
(ii) An announcement (full page) of the Olympic Art Exhibition.
(iii) A summary of how to get to the various London district Olympic venues by
     London Transport. This summary was prepared by London Transport 
     officials at the request of the Transport Department, but had to be severely
     cut in order to fit the available space.

Sample pages were put into type early in 1948, and general approval of the style was given.
In the later stages there were three major difficulties :-
(i) The slowness with which final lists of competitors and draws became available.
(ii) Lack of information from the officials of the sport concerned.
(iii) The impossibility of keeping a close check on printers and officials outside the
      London area in the last stages of production.

With regard to (i), the explanation of this delay is outlined in the report of the Entry Form Department. Unless this delay can be obviated it is clearly impossible for the work on programmes to be expedited.

With regard to (ii), it is true that all officials were hard-pressed, but even so, it was regrettable that information was not always available to the programme department at an earlier moment. Even where the sports officials were on the spot, continual contact was necessary to obtain all the information needed, and the difficulties were much increased in respect of outlying venues. As a result, much time had to be spent in obtaining information about officials, draws, etc., and three extra members of the staff were appointed for this purpose. By making a complete check of all results as they were received, keeping in touch with the Results Department correspondents at the various Olympic centres, and taking up all queries, either on their own initiative or when instructed to do so from the Programmes Office, they kept a flow of all the necessary material for the programmes. Their contact with the various arenas also enabled them to get draws, names of officials, etc., much sooner than would otherwise have been the case.

With regard to (iii), this did not hinder the work of the department, but resulted in the production of a less perfect programme either from the point of view of information or appearance.

Opening Ceremony

A design for a special Opening Ceremony programme was submitted by Mr. H. A. Rothholz. The cover design was approved, but it was decided that the inner pages should not be illustrated as had originally been suggested. Instead a plain make-up was adopted. 

Printing and Distribution

The distribution of programmes to the public was satisfactory, but the distribution to officials, press, etc., did not, on all occasions, work quite so smoothly. As was to be expected, some results for inclusion in the following day's programme were very late in coming to hand (even as late as 11 p.m.) and the very greatest credit is due to the printers for the way in which they overcame these difficulties and provided the programmes to time. So far as possible the complete proofs of all programmes were checked in the Programmes Office before printing went ahead. There were two major exceptions to this :-
(a) At out-of-London venues only the first day's programme could be seen in proof, and the Rowing, Canoeing and Yachting programmes were all subsequently consider ably altered on the spot. The Equestrian, Shooting and Cycle Road Race programmes were, however, finally checked in the Programmes Office.
(b) Where late results and draws had to be incorporated only a skeleton page proof could be checked. At first it had been suggested by the printers that daily proofs of each programme for such sports as Athletics, Swimming, Wrestling, Boxing and Basketball were unnecessary.

The Programmes Office's insistence on seeing as much as possible was, however, fully justified both in theory and in practice. In theory the Programmes Office was the responsible authority and had to take all possible precautions against any errors appearing in the programmes. In practice, the amount of pressure in the various printing offices inevitably led to several errors creeping into the proofs. Even with the precautions taken it was impossible to keep all errors out of the programmes.

Two sources of error were the following :-
(a) The printed lists of competitors from which the programmes were compiled were produced under stress. The proofs of these lists were not checked back against the entry forms and several errors, as it subsequently appeared, were to be found in most of the lists. It was obviously impracticable to waste time by checking the proofs against the entry forms, but it would have been desirable to check the printed lists against the entry forms and notify the printers of any necessary amendments before the programmes appeared.
(b) In order to produce larger quantities in a short time, some of the programmes were set in type more than once. For instance, each of the Athletics programmes was set six times and each of the Swimming programmes twice. Any alteration made on the corrected proof copy should have been made also in each other set of proofs. This in practice worked reasonably well, considering the speed of operation, but it did not cover the case of errors in existence in other sets of proofs, but not in the set submitted to the office. The printers had considered that they would be able to obviate any such errors, but after some had been found in two of the early Athletics programmes, all six proof copies were checked in the Programmes Office.

Several of the errors which had to be explained by the announcers arose from this practice. (Some errors, however, were due to rulings by an International Federation not being conveyed to the Programmes Office, as with the reduction in the number of 5,000 metre qualifiers per heat from five to four.)
The time factor made it impossible to check every proof name by name and number by number. So far as possible, however, a check of the number of entries in each heat and each event was made to guard against omissions, and by and large few slips were made.

(Source document:   Official Report 1948, page 79)