July 1996, Vol. 7, No. 7

Eraser

Has the transition to open systems rubbed out suppliers' identities?

LAS VEGAS -- Like the eponymous lead character in the summer movie, the transition to open systems in the newspaper business has all but erased the identity of the publishing systems industry.

That was certainly the biggest message heard on the Newspaper Association of America’s NEXPO ’96 show floor, held here June 15-19.

Though the NAA said there were 11,100 people attending the show, on at least two of the five days the aisles were devoid of human life (one supplier joked morbidly, "I saw a customer in the distance the day before yesterday").

As a counterpoint to the perceived lack of attendees, there just didn't seem to be much new technology at the show, either. Not since 1993 have we come away from a NEXPO impressed by widespread innovation. It was at that show that we determined that suppliers were beginning to understand the transition to open systems.

Unfortunately, understanding and thriving are two different worlds. Our suppliers, ravaged by our industry’s inability to invest in technology (and when we invest, we buy from general computing suppliers, not those dedicated to newspapering), have little to show because we haven't spent a dime with them.

Of course, that’s an exaggeration, but one no worse than the expectation of publishers to pay consumer-software prices for industry-specific solutions.

("Why should I develop that?" a supplier asked me about a feature I'd suggested. "Newspapers will only want to pay $400 for it and even at that price I'd only sell a couple of dozen.")

So there was nothing but moaning and whining about how few people there were in Vegas and how little new was to be seen.

I'm beginning to think that in the current spiral, publishers soon will be unable to buy technical solutions designed for more than one newspaper. I'm afraid -- if something doesn't change fast -- that in the not-too-distant future, publishers will have to develop their own solutions or contract with programming houses to get what’s known as a "one-off."

Conversely, suppliers aren't thinking outside of the box too well, either. In an era where all editorial and classified front-end systems should be true client/server solutions, we still see a lot of recycled proprietary systems or off-the-shelf products held together with chewing gum and bailing wire.

But regardless of publishers' inability to specify or purchase the correct products, or suppliers' inability to develop or integrate the right solutions, the writers of The Cole Papers and I still found enough NEXPO ’96 material to fill not one but two issues of the newsletter. We'll start this month and finish in August.

Inside, we cover a variety of important issues: