May 1997, Vol. 8, No. 5

Phoenix flies

How Arizona paper rose from the ashes of first-generation pagination

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- The symbolism is as stark as the landscape that surrounds this city: On one side of the street is the old building of Phoenix Newspapers Inc.; on the other, its new home.

The old building resembles many newspaper edifices -- something like an armory or prison with extensive loading docks. The new building looks sleek and modern -- all glass and polished stone.

The changes inside the new building are just as stark: rather than attempting to preserve a first-generation pagination system (developed by Information International Inc. and installed in the mid-'80s), executives at PNI decided to identify and purchase a new system that would take them beyond mere pagination.

"Been there, done that," Howard Finberg, the director of information services for PNI, has said with regard to full-page output.

Finberg wanted to move the Arizona Republic into "database publishing," which would solve a number of existing and potential problems -- a move away from "assembly-line editing," where dozens of hands touch each element before it gets on the page, and a move toward the ability to create content that can be used in multiple media without undue time or trouble.

Of course, producing pages on the Triple-I system was an experience that could be improved: layout editors sat in a darkened room, swinging between the Triple-I terminal (The Green Monster) and a System Integrators Coyote.

The room was dim because the Green Monster’s display was but a dim, sketchy realization of the page.

After an open selection process that included representatives from virtually every department of the paper, PNI had a "bake-off" in its offices in 1995, where suppliers staged small pilot systems for PNI employees. Layout editors, artists, reporters -- virtually anyone -- could try out the candidates.

The paper chose CCI Europe of Marietta, Ga., as its new database publishing supplier. (It should be noted that PNI has retained the consulting services of The Cole Group a couple of times over the last five years, though we did not work on the CCI choice.)

Inside, Correspondent John Bryan travels with me to Phoenix, where he takes a look at CCI as it is now installed. In addition, Bryan provides a look at the "clunkiness" of various page layout applications, including Harris pagination, a system he’s working to install at his newspaper, the Los Angeles Times.

Next up, I fly down to Dallas to visit the annual National Press Photographers Association’s Digital conference. Though smaller than previous sessions, this one was still packed with important thoughts and ideas about how to handle the change from making pictures with film and chemistry to making pictures with bits and bytes.

Also inside is Senior Editor Pete Wetmore’s look at the Year 2000 problem and how industry suppliers are reacting. It appears that the newspaper business is no better -- but no worse -- than other industries when it comes to fixing the ubiquitous problem of date-handling (most programmers in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s used only two digits to represent years in their code -- when we get to the year 2000, those programs will think it’s 1900).

Lastly, I visit the first incarnation of Seybold Seminars New York. Moved from its traditional spring site in Boston, Seybold Seminars (with whom I am affiliated) offered up a fast-paced conference that seemed to handle the pre-press/new media balancing act well.

Though pagination is a balancing act which almost every newspaper must become proficient at staging, in Phoenix right now the emphasis is on second-generation pagination. With more than 1100 pages output on CCI a week, PNI has moved not only into a new building, but into the forefront of newspaper technology.

-- David M. Cole