SII and banks reverse course

In the ongoing saga that has become daily life at the Sacramento-based newspaper systems supplier System Integrators Inc., a long-held belief that the company needed to be sold has come to an end.

Following a meeting of the board of directors and shareholders in New York the week before Christmas, SII has determined that the best path to the future is an "internal restructuring."

Translated: The owners of the company -- Bank of America, Chase Manhattan Bank and Cerberus Partners L.P. -- didn't like the prices being offered for the business and have decided that by forgiving some of the massive debt SII owes them, they might ultimately make some money.

"We're looking to reduce the amount of debt on the books so that we can comfortably make payments on the principal and interest," said Washington, a Sacramento businessman who had served as a consultant to SII during previous restructurings. "Keep in mind, the three [banks] are not only creditors, but they're the principal shareholders."

SII has retained the services of a law firm and an investment bank to begin negotiating with the banks, Washington said. The negotiations will determine how much of the debt will, essentially, be forgiven. Washington said he believed the new financial structure would be in place around April 1.

In another announcement, SII said it has agreed with Nova Publishing Systems of Auburn, Calif., that Nova will sell SII classified and editorial systems to U.S. newspapers with less than 80,000 circulation.

Nova Publishing is a new system integration firm started by Jan McDonald, who is also president of Associated Information Systems International Inc. of Auburn, Calif. Aisi, which was founded in 1993, is heavily populated by former SII employees, including McDonald and Aisi's operations director, Mike Reisenweber, a former SII chief executive officer.

In U.S. papers of 35,000 to 80,000 circulation, Nova will be the exclusive distributor of the SII products; for papers smaller than 35,000, Nova will distribute the editorial system from Wilkensen Scoop of Sweden (see The Cole Papers, January 1997) and the complete classified system from Pongrass Newspaper Systems of Australia.

-- dmc

Bit bucket ...

"The only people who seem to understand Moore's Law are me and Bill Gates."
-- Long-time BYTE Magazine columnist and science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle, in the press lounge at Macworld Expo

Thirty: Even while battling her third bout with cancer, De Anna Hall of Freedom System Integrators of Wichita, Kan., never took her personal problems into the office. The co-general manager of the company for more than a year, Hall had worked for FSI -- and its predecessor, Mycro-Tek -- since she graduated from the University of Colorado (with a journalism degree) in 1981. Moving from a training position, Hall was a marketing person who brought an upbeat perspective to the business. One night in the company's suite during NEXPO '96, a consultant was complaining about the heat. She solved his problem by dumping a bucket full of ice water over his head, quite unexpectedly. On Jan. 11, Hall lost her battle with cancer. She died at age 39. ...

Things we should have told you sooner: At Knight Ridder New Media of San Jose, Bonnie Levine has been product manager for on-line real estate classifieds for several months; Levine had been classified manager at The Press-Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif. ... At United Press International in Washington, John Walston has been named editorial director; previously he was a consultant, but before that he was executive editor of the News Journal in Wilmington, Del. ...

Real bits: At the Seattle Times, Marty Black has been named pre-press manager. Most recently pre-press manager at the San Diego Union-Tribune, Black spent 19 years at the Washington Post, where he held a variety of production management positions. ... At the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, Jack Nemetz has been named data services director; previously he was with the consulting firm MD Technology of Jacksonville, Fla. He replaces Russ Leseberg, who has returned to consulting. ...

New media mavens: At Cox Interactive Media of Atlanta, Jim Todesco, manager of classified development, has been given overall responsibility for development and execution of interactive classifieds. The service will launch first in Atlanta, followed by Austin, Texas; Dayton, Ohio, and West Palm Beach, Fla., in early 1998. Previously, Todesco was classified systems manager at the San Diego Union-Tribune. ... At the Boston Globe, Monica Hubert has been named director of operations for boston.com, the web site. Hubert, the paper's longtime advertising communications director, will be replaced by Kathy Colafemina, who had spent the last year rolling out laptops to the sales staff. ... At the New York Times, Rich Meislen became deputy to the president for news at the New York Times Electronic Media in November; previously he had been senior editor for information technology. Taking Meislen's old job is Terry Schwadron, who previously had been a deputy managing editor of the Los Angeles Times. ...

Vendor vitality: At Atex Media Solutions Inc. of Bedford, Mass., Richard Simpson Jr. has been named senior vice president, North American sales and operations. Previously, Simpson was a vice president at Symmetrix Inc. (a strategy and operations consulting firm) and had worked for Atex from 1978 to 1989 (in jobs ranging from sales to support to operations). ... At the Business Wire of San Francisco, Neil Hershberg, a 27-year veteran of the news industry, has been named vice president, global media; previously he was with PR Newswire, where he was director of media relations (he also has done stints with UPI and Newsweek). ... At Cascade Systems Inc. of Andover, Mass., Jim Nahin has been named national accounts manager in the retail division; most recently Nahin was vice president for sales and marketing at Connect3 of Los Angeles. ... At CPR Marketing Inc. of Westford, Mass., Caren Eliezer has joined the newly created firm, which is headed by industry public relations veteran Craig Kevghas. Previously Eliezer worked for Seybold Publications and Seybold Seminars as an associate editor; before that, she was with Scitex and Atex. ... At Digital Art Exchange Inc. of Boston, Jeffery Skolnik has been named national sales manager; previously Skolnik was with the Pitman Co. and Agfa Graphic Systems. ... At Freedom System Integrators Inc., Nick Koriakin has been named vice president, sales and marketing. Most recently Koriakin had been a sales executive with Monotype Systems (FSI's parent company) and previously he had been with CompuText, Information International Inc. and Atex. ... At FutureTense Inc. of Acton, Mass., William "Buck" Boone has been named regional sales director for the Southeast, handling the former Mission Critical product line. Boone has served on the board of directors for the Southern Classified Advertising Managers Association and the Classified Federation of the Newspaper Association of America. ... At Harlequin Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., Arlene Karsh has been named the top marketing executive at the Digital Printing and Publishing Division; previously, Karsh was an associate editor at Seybold Publications and program director at Seybold Seminars. ...

Confabs: The Heidelberg Digital Imaging Association, the older Linotype-Hell users group, meets Feb. 18-21 in Atlanta. For details, call (518) 373-1225. ... "Advertising Sales: Building Web Revenues," a conference co-sponsored by the World Association of Newspapers and IFRA, will be Feb. 25 in Barcelona, Spain. For more information, call WAN at (011) {33} 1 47 42 85 00. ... The 1998 Newspaper Advertising Conference will be Feb. 26-27 in Barcelona, Spain. For more information, call the WAN number above. ... The Great Lakes/MidStates Newspaper Production Conference is Feb. 27-March 1 in Champaign-Urbana, Ill. For more information, call (219) 546-3703. ... Documation '98 West will be March 10-12 in Santa Clara, Calif. For more information, call (781) 871-9000 or send e-mail to documation@capv.com. ... Seybold New York Publishing '98 is March 16-20; two tracks, two days each (one on web publishing, one on publishing systems) will be separated by one-day meetings that will include the Seybold/Cole Newspapers & New Media Seminar. For more information, call (650) 372-7072. ... America East is March 16-19 in Hershey, Pa. For more information, call (717) 234-4067 or send e-mail to melindaf@staff.pnpa.com. ...

Errors & Omissions: We regret to acknowledge we made two mistakes in our last issue. In the lead article on newsroom reorganization, we misspelled Mark Hull's name (we believe we got it right this time). Also, SAXoTECH's phone number was misprinted; it should have been (011) {45} 98163100. ... #

From THE COLE PAPERS, February 1998, Copyright © 1998, All Rights Reserved.