The Cole Papers, back issue essays, 1994-2004

Below, you will find links to the 122 back issues of The Cole Papers that contained front-page essays, which were then and remain free to be read on the Internet (the remainder of each issue is kept in our archive; you can purchase access at our store). Links to issues that are entirely in the archive (2005) are also provided, but they require paid access.

April 1994
  The big picture
  Grappling with photo archives puts publishing systems into focus

May 1994
  Recycling Center
  Publishers must buy technology today with new media in mind

June 1994
  Labor pains
  Publishing must teach its workers that constant change is the future

July 1994
  Viva Las Vegas
  Papers and suppliers await NEXPO ’94 as if it were the return of Elvis

August 1994
  True Lies
  The biggest things at NEXPO ’94 were the Arnold-sized rumors

September 1994
  Iota of innovation
  Small Israeli company brings amazing archiving innovation to NEXPO

October 1994
  Basic publishing
  The new fundamentals: programming, pagination, software, seminars

November 1994
  On-line ennui
  If we're not careful, new media could be more boring than print

December 1994
  Arachnophobia
  Publishing on the Internet (and World-Wide Web) shouldn't be scary

January 1995
  Atex in play
  Venerable supplier to merge with Norwegian firm -- or maybe not

February 1995
  Year of the boar
  Atex, System Integrators start off calendar by laying off almost 100

March 1995
  Prestidigitation
  We're asking integrators to perform magic when installing systems

April 1995
  Myopia
  A composite photo illustrates that we’re becoming too short-sighted

May 1995
  Untangled web
  Alliance of newspaper publishers seeks to simplify Internet access

June 1995
  Morgue mortality
  Picture archives, page archives and databases put nails in its coffin

July 1995
  Olympic games
  Atlanta hosts a marathon of epic proportions a year early: NEXPO ’95

August 1995
  Riddle me this ...
  How is NEXPO's Atlanta like Gertrude Stein's Oakland, Calif.?

September 1995
  Dewar profile
  Longtime industry innovator sold to Norwegian parent of Atex

October 1995
  Dangerous minds
  Electronic photojournalists, new attitude at SII, Internet vs. Videotex

November 1995
  Ink vs. bits
  Could a couple of teenagers with ISDN put you out of business?

December 1995
  ’Net dreams
  How PressLink will move photo, graphic, text distribution to the Web

January 1996
  TV nation
  On-line program listings have potential for publishers and viewers

February 1996
  Supply side
  Tales of how tough it is to be a supplier to the publishing industry

March 1996
  Cyber newsroom
  Digital journalism means new rights -- and responsibilities

April 1996
  Doing digital
  From ads to cameras to presses to on-line, you just gotta do it

May 1996
  Nothing but ’Net
  The latest features of publishing technology now emphasize Intranets

June 1996
  Visions of Vegas
  Trends at NEXPO ’96: smaller booths, more people, Windows NT

July 1996
  Eraser
  Has the transition to open systems rubbed out suppliers’ identities?

August 1996
  Leaving Las Vegas
  Before we bid NEXPO ’96 adieu: pagination, databases, more Internet

September 1996
  Budget blues
  Some concrete ideas to include in your capital requests for next year

October 1996
  Web workers
  Should on-line editorial efforts be run from the newsroom?

November 1996
  Mac mavens
  Photojournalists, designers and salespeople champion Macintosh

December 1996
  As the world turns
  Sysdeco soap opera spins off media business (Atex, et al.)

January 1997
  Resolutions
  Whether you're a supplier or a buyer, you've gotta learn more

February 1997
  Inside vs. outside
  Who has more insight: those from within or from without?

March 1997
  Internetpaper
  Network permeates everything, from delivery to research to teaching

April 1997
  Push-me, pull-you
  Are the Internet technology companies being two-faced about ‘push’?

May 1997
  Phoenix flies
  How Arizona paper rose from the ashes of first-generation pagination

June 1997
  Cajun computers
  Will NEXPO ’97 in New Orleans be reason for dancing in the streets?

July 1997
  Show me the money
  Publishers fork over cash at NEXPO for the first time in seven years

August 1997
  Digital deli
  NEXPO ’97 proved you don’t have to wait in line for service anymore

September 1997
  Automate
  Do new systems in news, circulation, photography herald efficiency?

October 1997
  Script for success
  AppleScript gives publishers easy ways to automate pagination

November 1997
  Grunge talk
  Creativity and rejuvenation herald the autumnal conference season

December 1997
  Tithing
  Voluntarily funding research & development, training and education

January 1998
  Reorgs
  How computers, on-line and video are changing big U.S. newsrooms

February 1998
  Listening
  Paying attention at a spate of winter conferences reaps benefits

March 1998
  Pipes
  Bandwidth growth hasn’t kept pace with other publishing technologies

April 1998
  Noo Yawk City
  Center of publishing universe isn't necessarily the seat of innovation

May 1998
  Flying trapeze
  Daring young technologists fly through the air with the greatest of ease

June 1998
  Dizzland
  Innovation returns with a dizzying array of little products at NEXPO ’98

July 1998
  6 days, 7 nights
  NEXPO ’98 (and other NAA meetings) highlight incremental advances

August 1998
  iMac attack
  Apple’s newest machine signals a rebirth for the publishing stalwart

September 1998
  Evolution
  Oklahoma City paper moves to its third pagination system in 15 years

October 1998
  Spin city
  A weary industry asks, ‘Are there too many publishing conferences?’

November 1998
  Hoosiers
  New classified front-end, web design bring good ideas from Indiana

December 1998
  Grammar school
  Back to basics – from web sites to ‘teams’ to color reproduction

January 1999
  A bug’s life
  Newspapers confront Year 2000 – is internal preparation enough?

February 1999
  Alphabet soup II
  New standards in news and ads making their way to you soon

March 1999
  Dread in Denver
  Adobe’s InDesign easily challenges Quark XPress page layout pinnacle

April 1999
  Quark’s quake
  Management shake-up belies potential of ‘kinder, gentler’ company

May 1999
  Autopilot
  Taking a lap around the track with new portable reporting computers

June 1999
  Jackpot
  NEXPO ’99 brings three new editorial systems from major suppliers

July 1999
  Crap shoot
  Three suppliers gamble on new editorial front-ends at NEXPO ’99

August 1999
  The Fifth Wave
  Newspaper systems move beyond the straight-jacket of off-the-shelf

September 1999
  Inside InDesign
  A look at the new page layout tool from an XPress user’s perspective

October 1999
  Gee, four Macs
  Apple shows new hardware, but is there a commitment to publishing?

November 1999
  Getting religion
  Hurricanes ’99 show why newspapers need to prepare for disaster

December 1999
  The ’90s
  A review of a volatile decade of publishing systems’ technology

January 2000
  No Y2 chaos
  Newspapers – and everybody else – survive the rollover to 2000

February 2000
  Oh-ess-ten
  New Macintosh operating system will mean changes for the faithful

March 2000
  InAdobe
  New products complement PDF, InDesign, but is it enough to switch?

April 2000
  Convergence
  Whether it’s in video, audio or war-torn East Timor, it’s still journalism

May 2000
  More multimedia
  How to organize a web site, train reporters for video and route ads

June 2000
  Fun House
  NEXPO 2000 poised to be a veritable playland in the city by the Bay

July 2000
  Me, myself & NEXPO
  Divided feelings about the annual newspaper industry trade show

August 2000
  XML-men
  The markup language becomes almost as popular as the movie

September 2000
  Big Brass ones
  Microsoft veep challenges the ‘information wants to be free’ culture

October 2000
  Road rules
  Every four years, conventions and Olympics tax news technology

November 2000
  The vision thing
  Publishers see digital imaging, e-books, new designs, VPNs in future

December 2000
  Re: counting votes
  Politicians may not know how, but newspapers automate elections

January 2001
  Real artists ship
  Atex decides to end development on Omnex, its new front-end system

February 2001
  Titanium toy
  Apple's new laptop is a traveling reporter's dream – except in price

March 2001
  Wireless wonders
  From the PDAs of the ’90s to WAP-enabled cellular phones today

April 2001
  Graphic fidelity
  Delivering and archiving newspapers in the format that God intended

May 2001
  On the road again
  From Boston to Singapore, Hershey to Norman, lots of tech talk

June 2001
  House of blues
  NEXPO may have light attendance, but the technology will be there

July 2001
  Doom traders
  The few at NEXPO 2001 had cash, which traded away the doom

August 2001
  Planet of the apes
  Are publishing system suppliers playing monkey-see, monkey-do?

September 2001
  As the world turns
  Suppliers in turmoil: Geac, Harris sold; Unisys, Net-Linx get new chiefs

October 2001
  Deadline U.S.A.
  Sept. 11: perfect blend of journalism and publishing technology

November 2001
  Outside the box
  From Malaysia to Rocklin, Calif., to San Jose: innovative thinking

December 2001
  Prince of pre-press
  Portable Document Format has become an integral part of publishing

January 2002
  Apple’s sunflower
  New iMac – bolstered by ‘digital hub’ strategy – will touch consumers

February 2002
  Take me to your ...
  Leaders are few and far between in the publishing systems world

March 2002
  Weird science
  Whether it’s SLAs, Six Sigma or Wi-Fi, new methods are on the horizon

April 2002
  Spring’s sprung
  New things – in Hershey, ROI, Bangkok, WebDAV – are flourishing

May 2002
  Candid camera
  Straight talk about digital video, system security and paid content

June 2002
  O-Town
  Many suppliers will be singing in harmony at NEXPO 2002 in Orlando

July 2002
  Minority report
  All who rode on thought Segway HT was the hit of NEXPO, except me

August 2002
  Atex agonistes
  Venerable supplier merges once again, this time with Media Command

September 2002
  Flipping out
  Newspapers’ future, networking, ads, buying systems got you worried?

October 2002
  Top X
  Latest version of Apple’s operating system the talk of Seybold S.F.

November 2002
  Humans
  Their need to belong, their foibles and whether they’re needed anymore

December 2002
  Users & losers
  Shutdown of APSU/ANUG isn’nt the end of the users group movement

January 2003
  Laptop dance
  Apple stakes its future on notebooks and productivity software

February, March 2003
  Rx for computing
  Troubled makers say, ‘Take two Tablet PCs and call me in the morning’

April 2003
  Keycaps
  How the site-specific keyboards of 30 years are are like Neopets

May 2003
  Double-down
  The NAA, newspapers, suppliers gamble that new NEXPO format works

June 2003
  Full throttle
  Newspapers, suppliers hit NEXPO with enthusiasm of Charlie’s Angels

July 2003
  On a tear
  Electronic tearsheet systems show maturity, acceptance at NEXPO 2003

August 2003
  New ways
  Newspaper business changes; web reorgs, Acrobat 6, ad incentives

September 2003
  Da bomb
  Even a bomb-scare didn’nt dampen the enthusiasm at Seybold S.F.

October 2003
  How suite it is
  Adobe releases key upgrades simultaneously, includes workflow tool

November 2003
  The blogosphere
  Are web logs journalism? Should newspapers support staff blogging?

December 2003
  Those googly eyes
  Web search engine has become a formidable force in publishing

January 2004
  Bye, bye Steve
  Macworld Expo showed Apple truly wants to be a consumer company

February, March, April 2004
  Ends of eras
  America East, archiving, Seybold Reports, never going to be the same

May 2004
  Hyperlocalism
  Using technology to gather neighborhood news and personalize it

June 2004
  A capital idea
  NEXPO in Washington, D.C., promises to turn out better than expected

July-August 2004
  I, Robot
  They don’t make summer blockbusters, or NEXPOs, like they used to

September, October 2004
  Photosynthesis
  Absorbing the new trends, tricks, tribulations of digital photojournalism