Color Everywhere
by L. Carol Christopher
It's been a while since that little startup from Gannett began a colorrevolution on the front pages and weather charts of newspapers across thecountry. Now an upstart in Texas has raised the ante. The Arlington (Texas)Morning News, which first saw the light of day just over a year ago, has thecapacity to run color on every single one of its pages.
This Morning News is the youngest sibling of A.H. Belo's Dallas MorningNews, and started as a five-day-a-week paper; six months later it was a daily.
The colorfulinsides of the Arlington Morning News
The rare combination of the paper's size (usually 16-to-20 pages), itscirculation (20,000 daily and 25,000 Sunday), and shared access to Belo'sprinting facility in nearby Plano work together to color the world for Arlingtonreaders and advertisers. But Frank Tyler, vice president of production at theDallas Morning News, attributes the success of the process to "adown-to-earth bunch of folks who work as a team at the production level, and whotry to learn about new ideas, so they are prepared to handle whatever comes downthe pike."
The new production task is definitely a production challenge. Years ago,says Tyler, production departments responded to a request like, "Let's havecolor on every page," with an automatic, "No."
Now, says Tyler, "If the machine will do it, we'll do it. The peoplehere have the attitude required to make these things happen. It's exciting tous. The harder it is, the better craftsmen we become."
Some smart technology makes it a little easier to say "Yes." Forexample, the staff in Arlington transmits negatives via fiber-optic lines to theParascan system in Plano, which transfers ink values to the press. That makesthe press startup a lot faster and helps with registration. The papers areprinted on six TKS and two Goss Headliner offset presses. The stacked units addenough cylinders to run a comic lead and print back-to-back process color.
The printing facility has enough capacity, says Tyler, to can run both theArlington and Dallas papers at the same time. But routing all the negativesthrough platemaking and to the presses on deadline has been the biggest hurdle,he adds. "It works well, though there's a lot that goes through onedepartment at one time. We're ordering another Lithograph 7 to have morecapacity through platemaking."
Of course, there are some newsroom challenges as well (though some mightfind dealing with all those color pages an enviable challenge). While the paperis already running the Texas and Arlington flags in full color every day on theeditorial page, and trim red-and-blue rules flag each section front, thenewsroom staff has been busy trying to think of new ways to use the capability.One innovation was a four-page pullout last summer on the Arlingtonentertainment district--Ranger stadium, Six Flags and Wet 'n' Wild. Morerecently, the newsroom put together a 26-page section on the Rangers. But GaryJacobson, publisher and editor of the Arlington Morning News, emphasizes thatthe color capability hasn't changed what's covered. Rather, color allows them toexecute their ideas differently.
Barry Peckham, senior vice president for circulation, says reader reactionhas been favorable. And although there has been no significant impact on sales,Peckham says he didn't expect one: "It's just part of our attempt to putout the best product we can for our readers."
There may be a Catch 22 to this paper's success, however. The good news?Color puts ad sales in the pink, and that makes the paper larger. But that'swhere the blues may set in: If the paper grows, it will require greater presscapabilities to run the same high percentage of color pages.
L. Carol Christopher is president of Christopher Communications inBerkeley, Calif. E-mail, cchristo@weber.ucsd.edu;phone, (510) 444-7841.