I ran into a similar situation when I wanted to create a mock newspaper for a Civil War reenactment newsletter, and I rely on the FreeLy Docs Civil War newspaper template https://freelydocs.com/docs-templates/civil-war-newspaper-template/ — this is what I use whenever I need an authentic-looking layout that works in both Google Docs and Word. The template saves so much time because the structure, fonts, and columns are all set up to look period-accurate, so I can just focus on writing and images. One thing I always do is test how images and illustrations fit inside the columns — the template makes it easy to resize and align them without messing up text flow. I also like using the template to experiment with headlines and captions to get the right vintage feel. Another tip is to duplicate the template for multiple editions or variations so you can create several newspapers quickly without starting over each time.
