Tackling 2000
by Mark Toner
As the clock ticks toward 2000, computer-industry pessimists look more and more like realists. Talk among more than 100 newspaper staffers and vendors at a December meeting organized by NAA was peppered with expressions like "triage," "risk assessment" and "survival" regarding the moment that this century's computers must recognize the next millennium.
The move to open systems unleashed a plethora of possible complications, from operating-system bugs to conflicts with third-party software that need to be tested on-site. "New systems have all the same problems, but we have less control," lamented Gary R. Young, 2000 technical manager for Atex Media Solutions Inc. of Bedford, Mass. "Vendors cannot make your papers 2K compliant, but we can help."
Newspaper executives must "assess their own risk tolerance," advised Karl W. Feilder, chief executive officer of Greenwich Mean Time Ltd., a British firm tackling the problem. Instead of being "2K compliant," much software will realistically be either "2K ready," meaning it will work if staffers follow such special procedures as entering four digits of a year in a spreadsheet program, or "2K safe," meaning that it may remain susceptible to unforeseen problems. "That may be the best you can get," Feilder said. "Are you going to search for the Holy Grail of compliance, or find something that can work?"
Don't forget to scrutinize noncomputer systems, warned Larry L. Hoffman, vice president of production for Ottaway Newspapers in Campbell Hall, N.Y. "I have security systems that potentially won't let us into the building [and] environmental systems that won't work, which means that presses won't work."
NAA officials now consider holding additional information-sharing meetings. "Eighty-two percent of all IT projects are late," Feilder warned, adding urgency to urgency. Driving the sobering statistic home, when asked how many in the room had met their own pagination deadlines, only one person raised his hand.
"There are not enough resources to solve this problem for the industry," declared Bill Solimeno, a consultant with Publishing Decisions of Sandbornville, N.H. "Somebody's going to get hurt."
That somebody may well be senior managers or directors. With 2000 considered a "foreseeable risk," directors of publicly held companies could be found negligent-and personally liable-if the problem isn't handled appropriately, warned Feilder. "If you have an IT manager and he says everything's under control, ask him for the deed to his house as security," he quipped.
Legal costs alone could exceed $1.7 trillion, and at present license agreements and liability limitations generally "favor IT vendors," said Daniel B. Hassett, an attorney with Williams, Mullen, Christian & Dobbins in Washington, D.C.
Systems personnel from several newspaper groups expressed frustration about "marketing-driven" software upgrades and their inability to get binding legal assurances from vendors. Facing limited resources and a decade of downsizing, however, vendors at the meeting asked publishers to work with them.
As Warren Fletcher, general manager of Geac Publishing Systems in Tampa, pointed out, "By the time you get through the courts, 2000 is here and gone." And losing a couple of lawsuits could remove vendors as potential solution-builders.
Mark Toner covers technology and new media for Presstime magazine. E-mail, tonem@naa.org; phone, (703) 902-1684; fax, (703) 902-1690.