For more information on America West, call the Cnpa at (916) 449-6008, or visit its web site at http://www.cnpa.com/.

-- dmc

"The cable those guys are installing has enough bandwidth to take every word that's ever written or spoken inside that newspaper building and transmit it around the world. At the speed of light. Almost. At practically zero cost. Anywhere on the planet. The entire structure of what that newspaper does is changing, literally under people's feet. And no one has noticed."

-- John Gage, Sun Microsystems, standing outside the Los Angeles Times, quoted in an article in WIRED magazine.

Bit bucket ...

Thirty: Like many in this business, Dave Gibbs got to where he was by a rather circuitous route: He'd been a full-time firefighter, cab driver, milkman and military policeman. Somewhere along the line he acquired the skills to be a computer repairman as well as a programmer. He drifted into newspapers (at the St. Petersburg Times and Fort Lauderdale Sun-sentinel, both in Florida) as a production manager, business office manager and MIS director. Gibbs became a well-known and well-liked salesman at both Atex and Dewar, going to Baseview Products Inc. in 1993. At first he was a district sales manager for the southeast for Baseview; more recently he was "upmarket sales" manager, working on the key Baseview accounts at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock and The Repository in Canton, Ohio. While making a sales call in September at the Lake Charles American Press in Louisiana, Gibbs died of a sudden illness. He was 59 and leaves a wife, three grown daughters, a brother, two sisters and eight grandchildren. ...

Real bits: At the Miami Herald, Jamie Braswell becomes reporters' systems editor (he'll be looking out for reporters' needs and is a peer of Mike Kinerk and John VanBeekum, the other two system editors); previously Braswell was systems editor at the San Jose Mercury News, and before that held a similar job at the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina. ... More than 35 customers attended the first Mission Critical Users Group meeting in September. Officers of the newly formed group include President Monica Hubert, who is remote ad manager at the Boston Globe, and Vice President Kim Phillips, AdFAX manager at the Journal and Constitution in Atlanta. ...

New media mavens: At Horvitz Newspapers of suburban Seattle (Eastside Journal and South County Journal), Catherine Shen was named to a new position as vice president for new media and news, with responsibility for developing content for the newspapers' web site; she was formerly editor of the two papers. ... At Alabama Live, a Newhouse Newspapers web site, Frank Breithaupt has been named senior producer; previously Breithaupt had been the assistant managing editor for training and technology at the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y. ... At Media General Inc. of Richmond, Va., Mike Steele has been named director of new media; previously he had been director of electronic publishing and deputy managing editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. ...

Vendor volatility: At the Associated Press of New York, Frank Bass has been named computer-assisted reporting director; previously Bass was a reporter in the Dallas bureau of the Wall Street Journal. Also at the AP, Bill Schroeder has been named director of graphics; previously he was a design manager in the wire service's business development group. Schroeder replaces John Monahan, who is on a leave of absence to write a book. ... At Mactive Inc. of Melbourne, Fla., Scott Roessler has been named vice president of operations. Previously he had been director of product development; before that, Roessler was at Harris Publishing Systems Corp. for 11 years, where he was a combined product line manager/new product development manager. Also at Mactive, Bill Mercer has been named customer support manager; previously Mercer spent seven years at Harris. ... At System Integrators Inc. of Sacramento, Calif., David Renne has been named new accounts sales executive, based out of New Jersey; previously he was advertising director at the Burlington County Times, a member of the Greater Philadelphia Newspapers. Also at SII, Bill Lynch has been named southeast sales executive, based out of Georgia; previously he was with Linotype-Hell, Diadem, Konica and Portage Newspaper Supply (a division of Knight-Ridder). ...

Confabs: The Southern Newspaper Publishers Association's annual convention is Oct. 12-15 in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. Speakers include David Stonecipher of Jefferson-Pilot, Katharine Graham of the Washington Post and Jeff MacNelly, syndicated cartoonist and creator of the comic strip Shoe. For more information, call the Snpa at (404) 256-0444, or send e-mail to edvanhorn@aol.com. ... IFRA 97, the annual European newspaper technology conference and trade show, is Oct. 13-15 in Amsterdam. For information, call {011} (49) 6151-733-6. ... The Inland Press Association's annual meeting is Oct. 19-21 in Chicago. Speakers include 1996 presidential candidate Bob Dole, former political columnist Jack Anderson and Steve Kelley, cartoonist for the San Diego Union-Tribune. Session topics include "Retailing in the Year 2010," "Hiring Newspaper Managers for the 21st Century," "A Newspaper Strategy to Meet the Multimedia Future" and "New Technology: A World View." For more information, contact Inland at (847) 696-1140 or inland@fortwayne.infi.net. ... Millennium Survival, a Year 2000 conference sponsored by the Software Productivity Group, is Oct. 22-24 in Dallas. For more information, call (508) 652-1100 or e-mail general@spgnet.com. ... The System Integrators Systems Users Group will hold its fall meeting Oct. 26-27 in Sacramento. For more information, contact the group's president, Mike Kinerk of the Miami Herald, at (305) 376-3677. ... The Folio: Magazine Conference is Oct. 27-29 in New York. Speakers include Bonnie Fuller of Cosmopolitan, Michael Clinton of Condé Nast Publications, Bruce Heston of Meredith Corp., Tom Bentkowski of Life magazine, Edward Fones of Men's Health magazine and Michael Leeds of CMP Media Inc. For more information, call (203) 358-3751. ... A Stanford Workshop for publishing professionals, "Publishing on the Web," is Nov. 16-19 in Monterey, Calif. Speakers include Guy Kawasaki of Apple Computer Inc., Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, Bill Allman of U.S. News & World Report, Rich Jaroslovsky of the Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, Rick Smolan, photographer and creator of 24 Hours in Cyberspace, and Scott Rosenberg of the on-line magazine Salon. For more information, e-mail kiesh@leland.stanford.edu or call (650) 725-6259. ... #

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