Published
Tuesday, April 13, 1999
Taking
the next step into newsroom technology
By Michiyo
Yamada and Joshua Robin
ASNE Reporter
Staff Writer
In 1994, Bruce
Winges, night managing editor of the Akron Beacon Journal, looked at his
newspaper's pagination and editorial systems and decided that they needed
upgrading. "It was 1960s technology," he said, referring to the newspaper's
SII/Coyote production computers.
The
system worked well inside the walls of the newsroom but stopped there,
Winges said. Reporters could not file stories from the field, photographers
had to develop pictures in the lab and production was time-consuming.
Winges
and other Beacon Journal editors decided to buy a pagination system that
integrated word processing, page layout, photo scanning and photo editing.
The new system also gave the paper's various departments access to the
Internet. The $3 million investment was made when the costs of computers
was declining.
Many papers
are using new technology such as digital cameras and the Internet for faster,
in-depth coverage. They started by upgrading old systems cutting
production costs, equipping themselves with Y2K-compliant systems and improving
layout to make their products visually enticing.
The
costly process, editors say, is not finished. Papers of all sizes purchased
pagination systems long ago, but others waited, citing costs, unfamiliarity
with new technology and uncertainty about the future.
These
are among many issues to be addressed today at the Technology Town Hall
from 3 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. in the Gold Room by Andrew S. Grove, founder of
Intel Corp. He is to be interviewed
by Jerry Ceppos, executive editor of the San
Jose Mercury News, and Hiawatha Bray, a technology reporter at the
Boston Globe.
"Electronic
pagination changed the way the paper was physically put up," said Roy Baril,
director of information systems at the University of California at Berkeley
Graduate School of Journalism. Baril was in charge of setting up pagination
systems at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., and the Post-Tribune
in Gary, Ind.
Baril
said technology has forced editorial and production departments, traditionally
far more separate, to work together. "It is no longer 'We do this, he does
that or they are doing that,' " he said.
The
Californian in Salinas, which converted to fully integrated, QuarkXPress-based
pagination for front-end editorial and page design terminals in 1998, still
has growing pains.
"You
have to do this until you get it right," said Catharine Hamm, managing
editor of the 20,000-circulation Gannett-owned paper. Although it is a
stressful process, introduction of the user-friendly system has proven
beneficial, she said.
"We
have to keep up with new MTV generation who grew up with computer technologies.
For them, what you see is as important as what you read," Hamm said.
In Akron,
each of the 170 members of the Beacon Journal's newsroom staff can access
the Internet from their desks. Photographers can send pictures electronically.
And since most production is done electronically, mistakes can be corrected
without reprinting pages. The paper has eliminated its composing room of
50 people and cut its production time by an hour. In many newspapers, the
new technology also altered the chain of command. Production departments
integral to the old systems have been scrapped entirely, and new pagination
teams are being established near the editorial department. Editors, meanwhile,
say their role has been changed dramatically.
"We
have to worry about design of our newspaper, not just headlines, grammar
and syntax," said William E.N. Hawkins, vice president and executive editor
of The Herald-Sun in Durham, N.C.
The
Herald-Sun, which converted from a Harris system and letterpress to Dewar
View system and offset press overnight in 1991, is planning to install
an even newer ACI pagination system this year.
Hawkins
said the paper could decide quickly to spend more money on new technology
because of its independent ownership by E.T. Rollins.
But
at a larger paper such as the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the
conversion was quite an ordeal.
"It
was two years of hell and then another (year) of discomfort," said Tom
Davidson, the paper's Broward Metro Section editor. The 260,000-circulation
paper tried to combine a 1980s Atex word-processing system with a 1990s
pagination system but eventually decided to replace the entire system.
Winges
said editors and systems staff at the Beacon Journal visited papers in
Cleveland, Charleston, S.C., and Buffalo, N.Y., to study how those papers
chose their new systems. He also developed the paper's training manual
for the newsroom staff.
Baril
said today's technology changes 10 times faster. By the time a paper finishes
installing a new system, what was brand-new technology will have become
an old one, he said. Baril advised editors to "make sure that the system
will have legs on it and that it will have some longevity. Choose hardware
that is upgradable for at least few years."
The
competition between newspaper publishing and the new technology continues.
It seems to go beyond pagination and even the Internet.
Elaine
Zinngrabe, business editor for Latimes.com, the online edition of the Los
Angeles Times, said people in the newsroom recognize that the Internet
is not a fad. "We have convinced (the newsroom staff) that their job is
not at risk because of the Internet and that the Web is a different publishing
medium."
So what
will be the technology beyond the Internet?
Zinngrabe
envisions a portable slat panel, similar to an electronic notebook, that
can download large amounts of information. It can function as a computer
and has thin, turnable pages. Knight Ridder New Media has tested this technology,
she said.
