Tucker reply: 'Our customers have businesses to run'

I've noticed that many of my cohorts have been getting significant lineage out of press releases. But for me, it's tricky being visible when you're not terribly newsworthy.

The last press release I sketched out went something like this:

"Software Consulting Services announced today that it is planning to continue using its current name for the foreseeable future. Further, the ownership of the last 23 years is expected to continue indefinitely.

"In this startling announcement, SCS further intimated that it is going to continue supporting and enhancing its flagship product, Layout-8000, along with its complete complement of products for editorial and news pagination and unified retail and classified systems, along with advertising, circulation and accounting systems.

"In a bold move, SCS announced that not only is it continuing its ongoing, nearly 100 percent dedication to the newspaper business, but, after careful business modeling, has decided to proceed with the slow expansion of its business through ongoing product development and international licensing agreements.

"In an unsurprising move, SCS has decided not to move and will continue operating out of its offices in Nazareth, Pa. (Executives do note, however, that a bulldozer is in the backyard, re-landscaping some of their cornfield.)"

We recently were fortunate to have visitors from a mid-sized East Coast newspaper group. Corporate executives as well as senior executives from each of the properties came to see our systems and talk with us about their plans.

At one point, the group's president asked me how SCS would respond to new media technologies. It's a fair question, one I'd thought about before and had struggled with.

As a technology company, we are attempting to extol the opportunities that new technology offers newspapers. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for new technology is tempered by the realization that our customers have businesses to run.

At some point the advantage of what is new is overridden by the costs of technology. In addition, the effort to do something new rather than something better often creates a lack of focus.

I know how to read a financial statement and, quite frankly, the fundamental equation of business is Profit = Revenue - Costs.

New technology might provide additional opportunities for saving costs or increasing revenue, but the business plan to make that equation work for an organization is best defined by the organization itself, and not by a technology supplier. Because of this, SCS has concentrated its development efforts on building new systems for the core business that newspapers do.

We are building news and advertising systems designed to meet the needs of a newspaper enterprise-wide. For this, we completely integrate editorial and news pagination for the newsroom systems. We address advertising system needs through retail and classified order entry, billing, accounts receivable, dummying and pagination.

We think newspapers need the flexibility to regionalize their publications. Because of this, greater demands are placed on both the pre- and post-press aspects of advertising management. We offer newspapers the flexibility of ordering ads for multiple publications that have multiple run schedules and, for example, in the case of classified ads, diverse styles and column formats.

Handling such variability is a challenge. Just making sure that revenues are distributed to appropriate general ledger accounts requires sophisticated processing of business rules.

Without a doubt, many newspaper suppliers are in transition; apparently few have the wherewithal to carry out major development activities.

SCS is fortunate in this regard because of our large installed base of customers who pay for support. It is these support dollars which have enabled us to provide ongoing service as well as to invest in new products for the newspaper business. We consider ourselves blessed to have such customers.

I remember my first few weeks at the ANPA/RI (American Newspaper Publishers Association Research Institute) nearly 25 years ago. I remember thinking, "My goodness, look at the neat stuff I'm going to get to work on!"

I am still excited by this "neat stuff," and the challenges which the "fifth wave" will bring to the newspaper business and its system suppliers.

SCS is eager to face those challenges and provide workable solutions to newspapers in an ever-evolving technology.

-- Richard J. Cichelli

From THE COLE PAPERS, April 1997, Copyright © 1997, All Rights Reserved.