The Cole Papers, Hellbox, September 1994

Triple-I to buy Monotype, Berthold

Defying the rumor-mongers, Information International Inc. has signed an agreement to purchase the worldwide assets of Monotype Systems Inc. and H. Berthold Systems from International Publishing Associates Holding Ltd.

Whispers at NEXPO had been that IPA would buy Triple-I, which is based in Culver City, Calif. (see The Cole Papers, August 1994). The agreement does not include IPA's other operating units -- Freedom System Integrators Inc. of Wichita, Kan., or QED Technology Ltd. and GB Techniques, both of the United Kingdom.

The acquisition of Rolling Meadows, Ill.-based Monotype is pending while a "definitive agreement" is reached; both parties said they hoped it would be executed by year's end.

The new entity would have annual revenue of about $100 million, with 24 offices worldwide. More than 450 employees currently serve "in excess of 5000 installed sites," the companies said.

Triple-I President Charles Ying said, "We are excited about joining forces with the Monotype and Berthold group and creating the foremost supplier of output and pre-press systems for the publishing industry."

"The IPA team is looking forward to working with Charles Ying and Triple-I management in forming a world-class organization that will take a leading role in the industry," IPA Chairman Peter Purdy said. Under the new arrangement, Purdy would become a member of the Triple-I board of directors, a Triple-I spokesman said.

Monotype Systems President Dennis Nierman would become senior vice president of sales at Triple-I, the spokesman said. In addition, John Lally, who had been Monotype's vice president of sales, would become Triple-I's vice president of Eastern U.S. sales. Vice president of Western U.S. sales would be Richard Ritterbush, who was recently named Triple-I's vice president of sales.

The Monotype/Berthold acquisition is just the latest link in a chain Ying started when he became Triple-I president and chief executive in early 1992. Since then, Triple-I has bought Xitron (output control devices), Diadem (color separation systems), Camex (display ad makeup systems) and DigiFlex (display ad delivery services).

-- dmc

Bit bucket ...

New media mavens: When he was at Chicago Today (in its final years), he fooled around with the new VDT system when things got slow on the overnight city desk. Upon Today's folding, he fiddled with the computers at the Chicago Tribune, conspiring with a technician to set up two screens and one keyboard. When he was in San Francisco, at the Examiner, he kibitzed over my shoulder while I was trying to learn systems. At People magazine, he was frequently involved in technology discussions. When he founded Entertainment Weekly he based his proposal to Time Inc. on the fact the magazine would be published on Macintosh computers (a radical notion then). His stints at the New York Daily News (as Sunday editor, assistant publisher and vice president of development) and TV Guide (he writes "The Couch Critic") have been relatively technology-free. Nonetheless, boss Rupert Murdoch has appointed Jeff Jarvis editor-in-chief of the Delphi Internet Services Corp. of Cambridge, Mass. Jarvis will continue as critic and columnist at TV Guide. ... Tribune Co. says James Longson has been appointed senior vice president for technology; he'd been VP/technology. Longson also has been named executive vice president and general manager of Compton's NewMedia, a Tribune subsidiary. Tribune said Longson also will chair its Technology Advisory Committee, made up of 10 company executives and four outside directors. ...

New New England jobs: New AME for marketing and new products at the Providence (R.I.) Journal is Bill Ostendorf. He will directly manage some new products and ventures, and serve as newsroom coordinator for others. Ostendorf, formerly the director of photography, will continue to oversee the photo department, which is closely tied to several new ventures he will manage. ... Warren Watson, managing editor for operations of the Portland (Maine) Newspapers, has been given additional responsibilities as associate publisher for the midcoast of Maine. Watson will coordinate the papers' growth in the region from Brunswick to Penobscot Bay. ...

West Coast wonders: At the San Jose Mercury News, Jamie Braswell has been named systems editor, replacing Bob Hucker, who left a few months back to become a real-live computer programmer (this is a step up?). Braswell had been assistant systems editor and before that, an editorial systems person with the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer. ... Also at the Mercury News, Bryan Monroe has been named AME for photo and graphics; he'd been the paper's design director. ... At Lesher Newspapers (Contra Costa Times, etc.) in the San Francisco East Bay, Doreen Iacono has been named publishing systems manager. Iacono had been with the San Francisco Chronicle as an assistant systems editor and had been systems editor of the International Herald Tribune in Paris. ...

Vendor Variables: After running the U.S. operation of Hyphen Inc. off and on for the last couple of years, Ken Hillier has left the company to found his own business, Registration Technologies International of Marblehead, Mass. The new company sells a product called Intelli-Punch, which allows older imagesetters to be retrofitted with internal punch registration systems. ... At TV Data Technologies of Queensbury, N.Y., Amy Webster has joined the company as Northeastern sales director; she'd been with TV Update and, before that, TV Data. Also at Tvdt, Michael Miller has been named assistant managing editor for national program information; he'd been supervisor of a regional channel editing group. ... Printware Inc. of St. Paul, Minn., has announced that Timothy Murphy has been promoted to director of marketing and sales; he'd been national sales manager. Also at Printware, Alex Koss has been promoted to director of product development; he's been with the company since its 1985 founding and was most recently engineering design manager. ... Carl Gustin has been named general manager and VP of Eastman Kodak Co.'s new Digital & Applied Imaging division. Gustin was formerly a VP at Digital Equipment Corp. ...

Confabs: Seybold San Francisco is Sept. 13-16. Speakers will include Michael Spindler of Apple Computer, John Gage of Sun Microsystems, Roger Heinen of Microsoft, Neil Chase of Chase Publishing, Gary Cosimini of Adobe Systems, Greg Anderson of the Morning News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash., Eric Meskauskas of the New York Daily News, Scott Brownstein of Applied Graphics Technologies, C.E. Steuart Dewar of Dewar Information Systems Corp., Mike Gold of Computer Network Integrators Corp., Charles Ying of Information International Inc., Andrew Anker of Wired magazine, Chris Jennewein and Bill Mitchell of Mercury Center, Mark Potts of the Washington Post and David Scott of Access Atlanta. You might also find Cole with a microphone in his hand. The conference is Sept. 13-15 and the trade show is Sept. 14-16; call ZD Expos at (800) 488-2883 for the gory details. ...

Errors & Omissions: In our coverage last month of classified systems, we failed to mention PPI Advertising Management System, the full-bodied offering from Publishing Partners International of Nashua, N.H. PPI is another supplier that has embraced Windows for unified display/classified ad order entry, integrated financial reporting and invoicing, and production links to standard shrink-wrap packages (or classified pagination from Managing Editor Software). While Word may be selected for word processing, PPI has developed extensive macros for AmiPro, to expand its utility into the classified realm. All activity short of file storage is on the client, allowing for maximum response time. PPI is at (603) 644-3339. ... #

"I came from Du Pont where we were trying to put Suns in front of everybody. It was like banging my head against the wall and it felt so good to stop."
-- Former Du Pont executive who found work elsewhere.

Triple-I to buy Monotype, Berthold

Bit bucket ...

From THE COLE PAPERS, September 1994, Copyright (c) 1994, All Rights Reserved.