SII still negotiates

When we last left you, System Integrators Inc. of Sacramento, Calif., was in the midst of negotiations toward recapitalizing the company (see The Cole Papers, November 1997). At that time, we predicted the deal would be wrapped up by Oct. 31.

Almost a month has passed and the situation remains static. "This is a large, complex deal and it's taking time to hammer out the details," one source close to SII said.

In November we reported that Platinum Equity Holdings, a company based in Los Angeles that specializes in turning around software businesses, would purchase SII debt and equity from two of the three banks that currently control the company.

SII officials and Platinum officials both refused to confirm or deny any deal or negotiations.

"We're long-term investors," Tom Gores, founder of Platinum, told the Sacramento Business Journal. "Too many venture capital firms are up and out. That's not our approach. If it's best to grow a company at 15 to 20 percent a year, that's what we do."

-- dmc

Spring new media seminar

Seybold Seminars, the prestigious publishing technology conference company, has announced that it will co-sponsor with The Cole Papers another Newspaper and New Media Seminar, this one to be held in conjunction with Seybold New York '98.

The one-day seminar, to be held March 18, will bridge Seybold New York's two main tracks: ink-on-paper publishing (to be held Monday and Tuesday, March 16-17) and web-based publishing (to be held Thursday and Friday, March 19-20).

The program director for the Newspaper and New Media Seminar will be the editor and publisher of this very journal.

"The Seybold organization has always had a lot of support in the newspaper community," said Craig Cline, vice president of content for Seybold Seminars. "We want to show our commitment to newspapers with another high-quality seminar."

In addition to the one-day seminar, Cline said an evening session devoted to newspapers would also be held March 18. Topics for discussion are still under development, Cline said, and potential speakers should send e-mail to seminar@colegroup.com.

-- dmc

Bit bucket ...

"From the time I came to the Times until we shut down the presses in the 42nd Street headquarters in June, there was the smell of ink wafting from floor to floor. It was reminiscent of the wonderful sounds and smells of newspapers before the technology revolution. They became part of your life and environment. Gradually, they've all gone, something that makes me believe that I'm retiring at the right time."
-- Gene Roberts, former managing editor of the New York Times, in Forbes Asap

Society news: Newly elected president of the Society for News Design (formerly the Society of Newspaper Design) is Lynn Staley, design director of Newsweek magazine (she was formerly deputy managing editor for graphics at the Boston Globe). Ed Kohorst, design editor, Dallas Morning News, has moved up the chairs from second veep to first veep. Jean Dodd, assistant managing editor for design and graphics at the Kansas City Star in Missouri, moves from treasurer to second veep. Lucie Lacava, of Lucie Lacava Publication Design Inc. of Montreal, Canada, ascends from the "entry-level" position of secretary to treasurer. The new officer is the incoming secretary, Svenåke Boström, the media development manager at Sundsvalls Tidning, a regional newspaper in Sweden. ...

Corporate life: At Knight-Ridder Inc., Steve Dempsey, chief information officer and assistant vice president for technology of the company, has been named vice president and chief information officer at K-R's Kansas City Star in Missouri. He succeeds Chet Wakefield, who left the newspaper earlier this year to accept an executive position with the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram. Dempsey was formerly the information systems director at the San Jose Mercury News. ...

Vendor vitality: At Atex Media Solutions Inc. of Bedford, Mass., Reiner Ebenhoch has been named director of distribution for the Asia/Pacific region. Previously Ebenhoch was with Scitex as director of Asia/Pacific operations for the company's PressPoint global electronic newspaper distribution project. ... At Baseview Products Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich., Vickie Bair has been promoted to general manager; she will oversee all departments and will report to Don Rogers, president of both Baseview and Harris Publishing Systems Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., Baseview's parent company. Previously, Bair was the director of customer operations; she has been with the company since 1992. ... At FutureTense Inc., of Acton, Mass., William Machanic has been named vice president of marketing. Previously, Machanic was managing director of Intellicast, the web site of Weather Services International Corp. Prior to WSI, Machanic was senior director of marketing at Atex during the Kodak years. ... At Gannett Media Technologies International of Cincinnati, Robert Yoder has been named product marketing manager for the Celebro Advertising Solutions line; previously Yoder was director of marketing for Managing Editor Inc. and director of marketing for Baseview. ... At Integrated Pre-Press Solutions Ltd. of the United Kingdom, George Sinclair has been named managing director. Most recently Sinclair had been with Parascan Technologies, but has a long career in the newspaper systems industry, having owned his own company (Sinclair Communications) as well as having worked for Muirhead, Crosfield, Hell, Atex and Monotype. ... At the New Horizons Team of Pottsville, Pa., Phil Fuhrer has been named vice president. Previously, Fuhrer served as professional in residence at The Freedom Forum. ... At the New York Times News Service, Susan Edgerley has been named executive editor; previously she was city editor of the New York Times. ... At Polaroid Graphics Imaging Division of Waltham, Mass., Steven Spector has been named director of marketing operations; previously Spector had been with Indigo, Agfa Compugraphic and Scitex America. Also at Polaroid, Cynthia Hunter has been named senior marketing manager (previously she had been with Iris Graphics and NEC Technologies) and Richard Deroo has been named business line manager for the DryJet digital color proofing system. ... At Thomson Target Media of Chicago, Steve Harley and Christopher Gray have been named art directors of the Curiocity product line (newspaper supplements for kids as well as a web site). Previously Harley was with Copley Chicago Newspapers and The Times of Munster, Ind.; Gray had been with Nickelodeon and Disney as well as being a children's book illustrator. ... At Unisys Corp. of Blue Bell, Pa., Mark Wasserman has been named program director of the North American Center of Excellence (COE) for the Unisys publishing program; previously, Wasserman was a regional sales executive for Unisys publishing and before that, a salesman for Atex. Also at Unisys, William Hack Jr. has joined the COE; previously Hack was a sales executive with Autologic Information International Inc. ...

Confabs: MacWorld San Francisco will fill up Moscone Center Jan. 6-9 with everything you'd want to know or see that's Macintosh. For more information, call (617) 551-9800. ... Online Conference '98, sponsored by Cowles Business Media and Simba Information, is Jan. 11-13 in Coronado, Calif. For the scoop, call (203) 358-4346 or visit on the Web at http://www.demographics.com/cgi-bin/csoc98.pl. ... SuperConference '98, the Newspaper Association of America's annual combo technology conference, is Jan. 11-16 in Miami Beach. Sunday through Tuesday pre-press and health and safety issues will have concurrent sessions; Tuesday and Wednesday the press and materials sessions will be held, and Wednesday through Friday will be the post-press meetings. For more information, call the NAA at (703) 902-1792 or point your browser to http://www.naa.org/. ... The Online Industry Classifieds Symposium -- sponsored by ECI Inc., Ad-Star Publishing Technologies, FutureTense Inc. and MPI -- will be Jan. 14-16 in Napa Valley, Calif. More information is available on the web site at http://www.ocis98.com/. ... Publishing Integration -- The Advertising Angle, the annual Harris Publishing Systems Corp. executive seminar, will be Jan. 22-23 in Melbourne, Fla. Topics will include data warehousing, integrating advertising into the workflow, sales force automation and electronic ad delivery. For more information, go to the web site (http://www.harris.com/hpsc/seminar/) or call Jennifer Fitch at (407) 242-5330. ... #

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