Share and Share Alike
The Boston Globe’s office on 320 Congress St. hardly seems like a newspaper operation. Exposed brick walls, ink-free floors and bicycles parked next to cubicles–these are not the trappings of your typical newspaper plant.
That’s because it’s not a newspaper plant. The renovated warehouse is home to Boston.com, the Globe’s Internet site (see p. 17). This issue marks the first time TechNews has profiled an operation not centered around ink and newsprint.
Yet one bit of commonality stands out. Like many newspaper systems people, Boston.com’s systems people are tweakers by nature. They’ve thrown together a lot of homegrown code, including software written in Perl that dynamically serves up MP3 digital-music files. Pretty cool. They’ve also shared the code with four other newspapers. Now that’s cool.
Credit the open-source software movement. But to my thinking, it’s also an extension of how production staffers have always tried to help each other tackle technical problems.
This willingness to collaborate has always struck me as one of the most distinctive things about our industry. As a rookie reporter (never fear–no weepy reminiscences of ink trucks this month), I was stunned to learn that after a catastrophic mechanical failure, that morning’s paper had been printed by the daily up the interstate a piece. You know, the same paper we alternately cursed when we got scooped and thanked when we did the scooping.
Of course, I’ve long since learned reciprocal-printing arrangements are commonplace. But I’m still surprised by how willing operations staffers are to help counterparts at other papers. Maybe that’s because so few people in their own town can appreciate a good story about jammed inserter hoppers, but it also means that help is often no more than a phone call or e-mail away. Can’t get a file to RIP? Call composing at another paper in the group, and maybe they can help figure things out.
This issue features several endeavors in the same spirit. Along with Boston.com’s code sharing, we look at a group formed to discuss electronic-ad issues (see p. 26). And we profile a former Thomson Newspapers initiative that has evolved into an industrywide press-training center (see p. 27).
One place to get started sharing information is just a mouse click away. NAA’s technology group operates a series of e-forums focusing on key operational topics. The concept is simple: If you send a message to the forum’s e-mail address, it gets relayed to all participants. When people reply, their comments, in turn, get bounced back to everyone else. Pretty soon you’ve got a conversation going.
Topics include environmental, health and safety issues; newsprint printability
and runability; post-press issues; Y2K (OK, so maybe this forum’s
quieted down to something less than a dull roar); and the 50-inch web
width. Participation is open to all employees of NAA-member papers. To
learn more, visit www.naa.org/technology/e-forums.html.
And keep sharing. 
Mark Toner
Editor