Next up: cable guy named new SII chief

System Integrators Inc. has picked its seventh chief executive in six years.

Following Erika Williams' three-month tenure as chief executive, the Sacramento, Calif.-based provider of editorial and classified systems announced July 1 that it had named Frank Washington, a Sacramento entrepreneur, as the company's new leader.

After less than a year with SII, Williams left in early June to become chief executive of the much larger Cincinnati Microwave Inc. The maker of radar detectors and cordless telephones reported it lost $13 million in 1995 on revenues of $79.2 million.

The chairman of SII's board, Neil Diver, said Washington has had a history with SII that included a consulting engagement during the company's start-up of its MediaBridge new media division.

"I am very excited that Frank has decided to join us," Diver said. "I believe his background will be beneficial to SII."

Washington, a lawyer and longtime cable television executive, is probably best known for his attempt in 1994 and 1995 to purchase the cable operations of Viacom Inc., the New York media company.

In concert with San Francisco's InterMedia Partners, Washington, an African-American, planned to use a minority tax certificate to buy the Viacom systems for an estimated $2.4 billion. In the midst of the sale, Congress passed a bill eliminating the tax break for companies selling to minorities and the deal was scuttled.

The 48-year-old Washington has had an extensive career in media, though only peripherally in publishing.

A graduate of Cornell University and Yale Law School (where he became a friend of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas), Washington was a consultant to the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy in the mid-'70s, moving over to the Federal Communications Commission in 1977.

He was named vice president of Times Mirror Cable of Irvine, Calif., in 1981 and later became general manager and vice president of Times Mirror-Videotex America.

In 1984, Washington moved to McClatchy Newspapers of Sacramento to run the company's cable TV business and sit on the board of directors. After assessing McClatchy's lack of interest in cable, Washington suggested to the board that it sell its cable companies.

His fellow board members agreed. Washington soon was without a job and became an entrepreneur, staying in Sacramento.

Described in a 1994 Time magazine article as a "multimillionaire businessman," the Sacramento Bee called Washington a "deal-maker extraordinaire" in a 1994 profile.

The article also quoted a business associate describing Washington as "one of the nicest guys I'll ever know in my life."

System Integrators Inc.,
(916) 929-9481.

-- dmc

"The industry changed while you were doing that."
-- Showgoer watching Frank Rizzo set up his demo at Agile Enterprise Inc.

"My job is great -- I get to sell Scitex equipment and I don't have to work for Scitex."
-- Overheard in the Monotype Systems Inc. booth

"Some of our customers can't even spell HTML."
-- Overheard from an anonymous booth droid.

Bit bucket ...
The more consultants the better: Robert Holt III, the longtime photo director of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who wandered over to the Dark Side while at Scitex America, is now consulting for suppliers and newspapers from his HQ in Groton, Mass. ... Glenn Holdcraft, former managing editor of the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, N.J., has opened a firm called Newsroom Consulting Group in Medford, N.J.; the longtime Gannett executive provides newspapers with training as well as new media advice. ... Clark Lambert, formerly data services director at Florida's St. Petersburg Times, and director of information management, VP of information management and VP of new technology at the Kansas City Star, has opened a consulting and software development firm in St. Petersburg. ... John Walston has left as executive editor of the News Journal in Wilmington, Del., to found WalstonOne Communications, a newspaper and World-Wide Web consulting business, based in Kennett Square, Pa. ...

Real bits: At the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota, David Fryxell has been named senior editor of business and technology; he'd been senior editor of technology and new ventures. ... At Park Communications Inc. of Lexington, Ky., Paul Martin has been named manager of newspaper operations; he'd been production manager at Thomson Newspapers. ... At the Bakersfield Californian, Alan Ferguson has been named news technology manager; formerly, Ferguson was assistant director of photography. ... At the News Division of the Special Libraries Association, Teresa Leonard has been named chair; Leonard is the director of news research at the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. ... At The Blade in Toledo, Ohio, Information Systems Director Lee Gagle has retired. Gagle, a longtime officer with the Atex Newspaper Users Group, spent 44 years at the paper. Gagle's replacement: Malcolm Edge, who had most recently been data processing manager at the paper. ... At Thomson Newspapers of Stamford, Conn., Tom Shafer has been named production technologies director; most recently he'd been customer services manager at Harris Publishing Systems Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., and before that, operations director at the Dayton Daily News in Ohio. ... Also at Thomson, Elizabeth Sholar has been named publishing systems director; she'd been with the Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., as publishing systems and pre-press manager. ... At the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, Russell Leseberg has been named data services director; most recently Leseberg was the owner of Avail Technologies, a consulting business in Sandy, Utah, and previously was technical services manager for Digital Technology International in Orem, Utah. ...

New media mavens: Mark Potts has bid adieu to @Home, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company that hopes to marry the Internet to cable TV. Potts, one of the founders of the Washington Post's Digital Ink subsidiary who was a reporter and new media editor at the paper, is now consulting from suburban Washington. ... At the Boston Globe, Gina Maniscalco has been named director of Boston.com (http://www.boston.com); she had been general manager of the service and is a nine-year veteran of the paper. She replaces David Margulius, who has moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to pursue entrepreneurial efforts. ... At the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., Mario Garcia has announced that he is opening an independent office in Tampa called Mario Garcia New Media Design International; Garcia will continue with the institute. ... At INL in Wellington, New Zealand, Don Hollander has been named general manager of advanced media for the newspaper group. He had been manager of information systems. ... At The Missoulian in Missoula, Mont., Sandi Daine has been named web editor; she'd been news editor at the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin. ... At NandO.Net in Raleigh, N.C., Christian Hendricks has been named president and publisher; he takes the role vacated in May by NandO.Net founder Frank Daniels III. Hendricks is a former marketing executive at the Fresno (Calif.) Bee and former manager of technology of McClatchy Newspapers, owners of the Fresno and Raleigh papers. ... Also at NandO.Net, Editor George Schlukbier resigned in late May; he has joined Daniels at KOZ Inc. of Raleigh. ... At Time Inc. New Media, Meg Siesfeld has been named managing editor; most recently she was deputy editor of iGuide, a joint venture of News Corp. and MCI. Previously she was managing editor of Delphi Internet Services and editor of TV Guide Online. Siesfeld will be responsible for the development of content for Pathfinder, Time Warner's site on the web. ... And at Knight-Ridder New Media of San Jose, David Yarnold has been named editorial director; most recently Yarnold had been managing editor of the San Jose Mercury News and previously had been the paper's deputy managing editor, assistant managing editor, news editor and graphics editor. Yarnold's career began as a photographer at the Daily News of Longview, Wash. ...

Vendor vouchsafe: At Applied Graphics Technologies Inc. of Rochester, N.Y., Melvin Ettinger has been named vice chairman and executive officer. Most recently president of Xerox Graphic Systems, Ettinger is probably best known for his time at Crosfield Electronics Inc. and DuPont Electronic Imaging Systems. ... At Digital Technology International of Orem, Utah, James Dorociak has been named regional sales manager for California, Nevada and Hawaii. ... At Geac VisionShift of Tampa, Fla., Karen Jasper has been named manager of newspaper support and professional services; she'd been circulation support group leader. ... At NewsBank Inc. of Naples, Fla., Steven Townsley has been named vice president of rights and permissions; he'd been advertising director of Editor & Publisher magazine of New York. ... Sysdeco Media Group of Bedford, Mass. (does the name Atex ring a bell?), has made a slew of new hires in sales: Frank Loversky, David Parker and Frank Scholes all came from System Integrators Inc. ... At Tribune Media Services of Chicago, Michael Silver, the vice president of editorial and development, has been awarded this year's Tribune Co. Management Award. The company said in a press release that Silver was honored for "his vision in bringing new technology together with products and services that benefit customers." Silver, a former newspaper reporter and editor, has been with TMS for 11 years. ... Also at TMS, Douglas Page has been named assistant sales manager for news and features of Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services. Page, who has been with TMS since 1992 as a sales representative, had been the director of marketing for a trade publication and had been at the Chicago Sun-Times in circulation sales and marketing. ...

Confabs: The Quark XPress Users International Conference and Seminar is July 9-10 in Chicago. Sessions will address XPress 4.0, Immedia, XTensions, pre-flighting and Adobe Photoshop for the Web. The digital details are available at (603) 430-8910. ... The Society of Newspaper Design is sponsoring two one-day workshops for advertising, "Selling by Design," July 12 in Harrisburg, Pa., and July 19 in Seattle. Billed as "nuts-and-bolts" sessions, they will cover a range of topics from the dynamic use of color to Internet advertising. For more information, contact Workshop Coordinator Warren Watson at (207) 621-5630. ... The Newspaper Association of America's Marketing Conference is July 21-24 in Chicago. Speakers include John Curley of Gannett Co. Inc., John Madigan of Tribune Co., Lance Primis of New York Times Co. and Dean Singleton of Media News Group Inc. Details are available from (703) 648-1280. ... The NAA Foundation Conference on Newspapers in Education ("Reaching Young Readers") will be held concurrently; information is available from (703) 648-1053. ... The Spotlight Conference -- on "directing the future of interactive media" -- is July 28-30 in Laguna Niguel, Calif. Speakers include Barry Diller of Silver King Communications, Rob Glazer of Progressive Networks, Norman Pearlstine of Time Inc. and Doug Rowan of Corbis Inc. For background, send e-mail to mark_davis@infoworld.com or call (800) 633-4312. ... #

From THE COLE PAPERS, July 1996, Copyright © 1996, All Rights Reserved.