Multimedia Moves

Two newspaper companies working toward multimedia convergence outlined the steps they’re taking to blend newsprint, video and the World Wide Web.

Dave Underhill speaks beneath a projection of one of Tribune Co.'s multimedia offerings—the Chicago Cubs.

As the Tribune Co. of Chicago begins laying out a nationwide infrastructure for multimedia publishing, Media General Inc. of Richmond, Va., is in the throes of a dramatic "convergence experiment" centered in Tampa (see TechNews Visits, p. 13).

"The marriage of print, Web and broadcast is rapidly becoming technically feasible," declared Dave Underhill, Trib-une’s vice president for intergroup development.

Tasked with finding new ways to marry the offerings of Tribune Co.’s 11 daily newspapers, 22 television stations, two cable-news operations and "scores" of Web sites, Underhill cited numerous examples of technology, either in place or in progress, that will ease the burden. For now, however, much of it remains "a to-do list," he admitted.

"An appalling amount of what we do is sneakernet"—including, at some television-station Web sites, literally videotaping content off the air—"and we’re working hard to fix it."

To wit, "one of the first questions people ask in capital review is if [a new tool] is interoperable," he added. "We have a good start to the cultural piece of this—we’re talking about it."

On the newspaper side, Tribune wants search-engine technology that can work across multiple systems to provide a complete view of news assets. Interestingly, the company’s 22 television stations are already there—they boast a common front-end solution, allowing staffers in different cities to exchange scripts, story lineups and other information.

But that’s just the beginning: Tribune Co. recently partnered with AT&T to build a national broadband network using asynchronous transfer mode technology (TechNews, January/February 2001, p. 6). "Ultimately, this high-speed interconnection will allow us to drag and drop video resources, advertising materials or any other asset"—whether multimedia or plain text, Underhill predicted. "It’s our backbone for the future."

As that backbone is fleshed out, the thorny issue of managing rights and permissions for a wide range of multimedia assets will become key. The metadata inherent in Extensible Markup Language and its many iterations, including NewsML, the News Industry Text Format and broadcasters’ similar SMPTE standard, can help track permissions, he added, stressing the need for open standards and universal interchange.

In markets where Tribune has both print and broadcast properties, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Hartford and Miami-Fort Lauderdale, print and broadcast newsrooms already work together. Tribune operates a joint print-television bureau in Washington, D.C., and equipped photographers at the Orlando Sentinel with video cameras to help feed its 24-hour cable news service.

In Tampa, Media General has begun experimenting with convergence, housing The Tampa Tribune, NBC affiliate WFLA-TV and Web site Tampa Bay Online in a new $40 million state-of-the-art facility that links people as well as data. Patti Breckenridge, the paper’s assistant managing editor, provided a dramatic view of what the trek to convergence might look like at the operational level.

The first, most basic step involved linking the various story budgets to give everyone a full view of assignments and resources. The answer, developed in-house: a browser-based system dubbed BudgetBank, scheduled for a February launch. "This integrated solution is a browser-based intranet application that resides on an NT server and is accessible via the corporate network," Breckenridge said. "It features customized templates for five different kinds of content—information on newspaper stories, on television scripts and video, on Web applications, on graphics, and on photos. All of the information feeds into the same database, so you can see what’s working on all five fronts on any breaking news story or major project."

The bigger issue is the search for content-management systems to link all the elements involved in creating multimedia coverage. The Tribune is working with several vendors to bridge the various media outlets. Breckenridge urged attendees to continue pushing the vendor community to make sure newspapers are part of the picture.

"With the explosion of the Internet and the migration of broadcast and print toward that medium," she said, "many think we are entering another period of radical change. News will often be written first for Internet or broadcast use, with print the final destination. One all-encompassing vendor with a proven solution for all media simply doesn’t yet exist."

Both speakers touched upon perhaps the biggest challenge facing multimedia organizations—finding ways to serve the growing numbers of outlets with a fixed newsroom staff; Underhill joked that perhaps a "28-hour day" would suffice.

"In theory, a [print reporter] would file the top of a story to the multimedia news desk, do radio and cable-news updates throughout the day and still somehow in that 28-hour day be crafting that story for the newspaper," he said. "We have to find the balance that protects great journalism."  

“It’s going to the moon," said Mical, national director of printing operations for Investor’s Business Daily in Los Angeles, which converted to CTP at its 10 print sites last year—and moved to full pagination to boot (TechNews, January/February 2000).

A panel discussion of newspaper and supplier executives mulled CTP as the framework for broader questions about implementing new technology. Moderated by San Francisco newspaper consultant David M. Cole, the panel’s speakers often looked back to past sea changes for perspective.

"With pagination, the automatic assumption was that everyone was going to save a lot of money," said Russ Leseberg, president of Avail Technologies of Sandy, Utah. "Some people reduced staff, others added people. Hopefully, the business reason [for CTP] is different for almost everyone in the audience. For some, it makes good dollar sense. For others, [it’s] to finally go digital. Hopefully, when people look at technologies, they understand their needs."

Speakers also explored why European publishers remain more eager to embrace CTP. On average, page counts and press runs tend to be smaller on the other side of the Atlantic, but several pointed to less tangible reasons. "They really go after new technologies," said Al Brunner, president of Autologic of Thousand Oaks, Calif. "Sometimes they do not cost-justify the way we do."

By contrast, material costs largely drive adoption in the United States, speakers agreed. "Everybody has been wait-and-see because of plate pricing—ROI is king," Brunner said. "If the prices go down, it accelerates. If they stay high, as they have in the past year, it stays slow."

At the same time, however, ROI isn’t the only factor when selecting new technology. Some of Howard Publications Inc.’s smaller papers will "probably never pay [the switch to CTP] back," admitted Larry Maas, corporate production director of the Oceanside, Calif., group. "But we need to change the technology and give them the ability to do what we do at large papers."

Panelists who have already taken the CTP plunge confirmed its benefits. "[Plates] have a greater color range and hold a lot more detail in the shadows... there’s a lot of good things of that nature," said Ken Kirkhart, vice president of production for USA Today in Arlington, Va., which converted all 36 of its domestic print sites last year. "We also eliminated at least one generation of materials ... [and] the potential for error."

While reiterating that newspapers will have different reasons for making the switch, speakers noted some common issues. Brunner and others rattled off a long list of things that need to be in place ahead of CTP systems—pagination, a page-workflow system such as an open pre-press interface, color systems, proofing systems, a page-management system, and tools that allow staffers to track production progress.

Digital-workflow components are critical, but panelists said that planning for such a major change proves even more so.

"The biggest gotcha is more than likely, the smallest thing," Leseberg cautioned. "Things we take for granted"—space and power capacity, for instance—"are impacted by systems like this. Take the time to ask even the silliest questions."

Then comes the trickiest step of all—changing the way staffers work, particularly considering CTP’s unforgiving nature. "[Once] you start adding the human element, you start finding how sloppy you really were," Kirkhart said. "Those paste-up people were making up for a lot of our sins."

Seeing how mistakes made in, say, editorial can suddenly wind up etched permanently onto plates makes it important for staffers to learn more about what their counterparts in other departments do. At The Times in Munster, Ind., new employees are walked through the entire production process to gain a better understanding of the big picture, Maas said.

"Walls used to be in the darkroom to keep the dark in," Leseberg agreed. "Now new technologies are forcing us to work together."  

Technology Untethered

While a futuristic, wearable computer may seem a world apart from, say, a press densitometer, each of a slew of hot new technologies demonstrated during the pre-press segment promises to take its own slice out of the analog world.

Xybernaut Corp.'s wearable computer allows reporters to stream live coverage of news events over the Internet.

“We’re crossing the analog barrier," said Mel Jackson, vice president of strategic planning for Virtual Ink Corp. of Boston, developer of a system that digitizes whiteboard jottings in real-time.

Consider the wearable computer described by Frederick A. Peterson III, vice president of government affairs and security services for Xybernaut Corp. of Fairfax, Va. Initially envisioned to put up-to-the-minute information at maintenance workers’ fingertips, the hands-free system has evolved to allow reporters to provide live streaming video of news events. Xybernaut used the gear to cover both major-party presidential conventions last year.

Peterson likened the resulting video footage to the unexpected appeal of the film "The Blair Witch Project."

"It’s amateurish and mundane, and yet you find yourself staring at it and becoming a part of it. You are where [the reporter] is. You’re almost smelling and tasting what they feel."

Equipped with a video camera and wireless connection for live streaming, the hands-free computer boasts a 12-to-20 gigabyte hard drive to allow storage of video for later use. It is expandable to include any equipment that can be tethered to a standard desktop PC, and can even perform speech-to-text recognition of a reporter’s spoken comments.

Along with the engrossing visual experience it provides, the system’s light weight proved invaluable for a reporter covering the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. As another cameraman got trapped in a street protest and was hit by a rubber bullet, "our reporter climbed a fence and got away," Peterson said. In addition, the gear can be used "discreetly as well as overtly," offering promise for investigative reports, he added.

Offering a similar promise of someday liberating journalists from cumbersome equipment, Gary Hallenbeck, project manager for Eastman Kodak Co. of Rochester, N.Y., showed the PalmPix camera. The tiny device connects to any Palm hand-held device and generates 640-by-480 pixel color images. "This attachment paradigm will expand to other devices," Hallenbeck predicted.

Likewise, Virtual Ink’s mimio whiteboard system, which tracks both writing and erasures, can free meeting-goers, and perhaps someday reporters, from note-taking. The system performs text recognition on whiteboard jottings, and can stream real-time images and integrated audio across the Internet.

Meanwhile, the concept of "device-readable codes"—in other words, printed bar codes linked to Internet sites—also appears ready to lose its physical link to a PC. At The Gazette in Colorado Springs, a beta test is prompting changes that may improve the technology’s lukewarm initial response (TechNews, November/December 2000, p. 21).

"It’s clear to us that in order to gain widespread acceptance, the tethered version must become less expensive, to the point where it can be bundled with a subscription," said Gary Blakeley, the paper’s vice president of operations. "Also, a wireless device must be developed."

Both changes are promised this year by GoCode Inc. of Charleston, S.C., developer of a "point-and-click" scanning pen and a tiny, five-point bar code that resembles a "sophisticated squiggle," as Blakeley put it. Unlike traditional bar codes, GoCodes can fit into in-column classified advertising without layout modifications—something "absolutely vital." On the production end, GoCode’s software integrates into editorial and pagination systems via a Quark XTension.

As part of its beta test, the Gazette hopes to ultimately distribute 1,500 to 2,000 scanners; to date, it has fewer than 1,000 in use. The cost—about $85 per scanner, or a $4 monthly lease—remains a key hurdle, as does the cord that tethers the scanner to a PC, Blakeley said. But just as important is a commitment on the part of publishers to provide more than just a token bar code or two in each day’s edition. "[We’re] attempting to link an incredibly old publishing model with an infant medium changing daily," he said. "For GoCode, or anything resembling GoCode, to succeed, content is essential—lots and lots of [it]."

Densitometry steals yet another slice from the analog world, as press operators learn they cannot "rely upon visual inspections alone," said Bill Owens, product manager of printing and imaging for the Americas at X-Rite Inc. of Grandville, Mich.

Shipped last December, X-Rite’s autotracking densitometer is fast—it can scan a double-truck ribbon in five seconds—and simple, operated by a touch-screen interface "so press operators don’t need to be computer operators," Owens said. Simple graphical cues alert users to high and low color ranges and balance problems, so they "don’t have to spend a lot of time analyzing data," he added.

The system’s pass-through track allows measurement at any location on a standard news page and can scan gray, color and single-color bars. It also can be configured with different target densities and balance information for different products, easily selectable from the touch screen.  

Dealing With Digital Ads

Speakers at several pre-press sessions underscored that savvy newspaper managers can—and should—take steps to connect with advertisers, as the two are mutually dependent.

Paul Lynch, quality-assurance director for the Chicago Tribune, spoke of "the technical detachment between customers and newspapers." He addressed the tricky notion of just how far a newspaper should go to correct advertisers’ digital files for optimum results on newspaper presses.

While admitting the practice can be fraught with hazards, he asked the audience to consider the alternatives: lousy reproduction, angered customers and lost revenue.

All too often, files are prepared based on expectations and proofs that have no bearing on newsprint reproduction, Lynch reminded the audience. He cited a blue logo that might measure 100 percent cyan and 50 percent magenta on a monitor. On a newspaper press, it couldn’t gain any more cyan, but the magenta is likely to grow to as much as 85 percent. The result: purple.

In this case, you aren’t eliminating color, merely compensating for it when you scale down the magenta with the expectation that the press will bring the color back into balance, Lynch explained.

Martin Bailey, senior technical consultant with Harlequin Ltd., discusses the proposed PDF/X-1 digital-advertising standard.

While new technologies make it easier for advertisers to send files to newspapers, "new tools only benefit those who adopt new practices," said M. Kirk Carr, advertising-services director for The Wall Street Journal.

"The key to assuring quality in our 17 locations and 19 printing lines," he said, is eliminating variability, a difficult task with so many sites. Carr credited the mandatory measurement of gray bars for the Journal’s impressive record—less than 0.5 percent color-ad adjustments, a virtual sell-out of color, and plans to triple color capacity by 2002. The paper’s managers also encourage continuous improvement and provide tangible rewards for results.

Meanwhile, Gannett Co. of Arlington, Va., has adopted a companywide project to improve the quality of ads—and enhance relations with advertisers. To that end, Gannett’s ADQ program strives to bridge gaps between advertisers and the pre-press area, where the promise of a good ad made by a sales rep is actually fulfilled, said Joe Junod, vice president of customer programs.

Higher expectations have put increasing pressure on pre-press departments to deliver high print quality, Junod said. In response, pre-press managers should continuously work to improve four things: customer relations, equipment, workflow and staff capabilities. "The intent to continuously improve is not enough," Junod said. "We must plan, we must manage and we must execute."

All four areas are subject to constant change, he said, so flexibility should be the hallmark of a good pre-press operation. "If a customer gives you an ad in DisplayWrite 1, figure out how to produce it," Junod said. Similarly, pre-press managers should push management to get the latest and greatest hardware and software. They should review workflow procedures at least twice a year, and staff training should be an everyday event, "in five-minute snatches, if necessary," he said.

Junod offered three "Cs" to follow in working with advertisers—coordination, cooperation and communication. And within the pre-press department’s walls, he said, frequently check whether there’s staff enthusiasm, clearly stated goals, proper rewards for quality work and good morale. "Behind all of this," he said, "I would encourage you to remember that detailed planning and effective execution will set you free."

One way of reaching those goals, as evidenced by Gannett flagship USA Today, is offering advertisers quality proofs. "There are lots of proofing techniques available," said Ronald E. Cobbs, pre-press operations manager. "It’s best to match them to your applications."

USA Today opted for ink-jet proofs but is exploring digital proofing. Ultimately, Cobbs would like to extend proofing to editorial content and install remote proofing systems in advertising customers’ environments, though that raises such sticky issues as who is responsible for calibration and maintenance to ensure the systems’ integrity.

For Martin Bailey, senior technical consultant with Harlequin Ltd. of Cambridge, England, the key to quality digital advertising resides in choosing the right file format to transfer materials.

Bailey analyzed the various formats available and assessed them in terms of reliability and flexibility. He advocated for PDF/X-1, a subset of Adobe’s Portable Document Format he argued the industry should adopt as it outperforms other digital-ad file options (TechNews, November/December 1998, p. 26).

Pre-Press | Environmental, Health & Safety
Packaging & Distribution | Press & Materials

TechNews Volume 7, Number 2: March/April 2001

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