Taking Stock in Decimals
by Heidi Ernst
Y2K has come and gone, but what will happen on D-day?
July 3 was the date that the Securities and Exchange Commission had originally ordered securities markets to start pricing in decimals rather than fractions. The New York Stock Exchange—and many newspapers—said they were prepared. But at presstime, the SEC acknowledged that Nasdaq would not be ready until early next year. The federal agency now is likely to postpone the changeover for all exchanges until either Sept. 4, 2000, or March 31, 2001.
When the plan to move to decimals was first unveiled two years ago, newspapers expressed concern about type and space issues, while system vendors and wire services anticipated few technical difficulties. Today, many papers already report prices in decimals. Others are in the midst of making the switch, and observers predict a smooth changeover for the rest.
“I expect that newspapers and suppliers would just like to see a schedule and have it implemented,” says John Iobst, NAA’s vice president of technical research.
Randy Picht, markets-information director for The Associated Press, agrees. The AP supplies stock, mutual-fund, bond and related information to almost 1,000 papers in the United States and abroad; papers currently have a choice of fractions or decimals. Picht says more than 150 papers have already switched to decimals, and almost 400 smaller papers subscribe to AP’s paginated product, also in decimals.
“When the exchanges switch in terms of pricing,” Picht says, “[all] 1,000 newspapers will need to run decimals. We’re working hard to get papers to convert as soon as possible.”
The San Francisco Chronicle was probably the first to make the change, in late 1996. The paper wanted to present information the way readers wanted it, says Lois Kazakoff, an op-ed editor who was business-wire editor during the switch.
Printing decimals does take more space, as many papers are discovering, so the Chronicle decided to run more information about fewer stocks. The advent of the World Wide Web helped—the Chronicle could provide additional listings online.
But The Wall Street Journal, which recently ran quotes for more than 8,000 stocks, won’t ease up on quantity. Technical changes will be similar to those required at most papers, but on a larger scale, according to James Hyatt, associate director of the paper’s market-data group.
“The tech-support staff has been actively working on this for several months,” he says. “A number of fixes are needed. Some templates will require a fair amount of scrubbing to make sure they’ll work.”
Whether your paper is small or large, ready now or waiting until D-day, some advice from the Chronicle’s Kazakoff could come in handy: Know your readership. If the switch to decimals limits the number of stock listings you can provide, then at least print those listings that are most important to your readers. And take a tip from the Boy Scouts: Be prepared.
Ernst is an Astoria, N.Y., free-lancer. E-mail, heidi_ernst@timeinc.com; phone, (212) 522-7437.
The Great Ditcam
Price Plunge
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| Nikon’s D1 digital camera. |
by L. Carol Christopher
The price of digital cameras has been dropping rapidly since their introduction in the mid-1990s, with a few point-and-shoot models now starting at or near $200.
Mid-range cameras, such as the Nikon Coolpix 800 and 950, have dropped to between $800 and $1,000. Higher-end models like the Nikon D1 and the Kodak DCS 630, both popular for daily newspaper work, carry price tags of $4,000 to $5,000, depending on software, peripherals and quantity discounts. But high-end digital cameras still cost about twice as much as top-of-the-line film cameras, says Doug Parker, photo editor at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.
With this range of prices, buying a digital camera involves more trade-offs than ever before.
Furthermore, as Alan English, assistant managing editor for photography at the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y., points out, a buyer needs to be concerned about more than just cameras and resolutions. “Buy fast computers to manage high-resolution images, and invest in networks and archiving,” he urges. “Do it right the first time to save money in the long haul.” English encourages newspapers to read reviews and ask local dealers if they can take cameras on test drives—“worth the 10 percent extra you might have to pay a store owner.”
Low-end ditcams still cannot be used for editorial photography, cautions Parker. However, these point-and-shoot models, with fixed lenses or built-in zooms and a built-in flash, do work well for smaller images such as mug shots or classified-ad photos. They produce “a file size that can run two columns without much problem,” Parker says.
They also can take photos for online use. The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, for example, uses the Nikon Coolpix 950 with iPIX adapters to produce 360-degree images for its World Wide Web site, says Karl Kuntz, managing editor for graphics. The paper also equips its three state-desk reporters with Kodak 260 cameras, at about $700 each, to shoot and transmit pictures from remote areas.
At the high end, the Nikon D1 allows manual adjustments; has interchangeable lenses, a reasonably fast motor drive, a high burst rate, an external flash system; and produces very large file sizes—“easily enough to run six-column photos without noise or sharpness problems,” Parker says.
Parker recommends the D1 for its relatively light weight and easy handling—big improvements over first-generation digitals, he says. “We use it for assignments ranging from the studio to football to covering hurricanes.”
The Dispatch also uses the D1 in advertising. The paper bought four D1s to test and is using them side by side with the more expensive Kodak DCS520 (about $7,500) and Canon D-2000 models used by most of the photo staff. What you’re paying for, Kuntz argues, is the ability to shoot a high-res file that looks good, even when spread across six columns.
But differences among high-end cameras go beyond price, Kuntz says. The DCS520 shoots an archive file and allows color-balance, exposure and gray-balance adjustments. The D1 shoots primarily JPEG files, and what you shoot is what you get—at least until you get to Photoshop.
But wait, there’s still more to the digital picture. Shooting a moving target has always required photographers to translate motion to stillness in meaningful ways. Increasingly, at papers like The Orlando Sentinel, shooters are packing digital video cameras along with their still gear, says Bill Phillips, the paper’s former photo editor. In Orlando, photographers contribute stills to the newspaper and video to the company’s cable-news operation.
English considers digital video an evolving technology with mixed results to date. But providing the equipment, including editing stations, “to allow photojournalists to get their feet wet is an important step,” he says. “Doing this will help avoid the backlash of forcing quick transitions down the road.”
Christopher is president of Christopher Communications of Berkeley, Calif. E-mail, cchristo@ucsd.edu.