A Web Timetable
I read with interest the November/ December 1997 issue of TechNews and noted that the enclosed poster (TechNews Technology Timeline) listed The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., and the San Jose Mercury News as the first newspapers on the World Wide Web. This is incorrect.
The N&O appeared on the Web around the same time one of Landmark Communications' newspapers, The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., started a site. A few other newspapers followed suit pretty quickly. The Mercury News wasn't one of them-it was part of America Online at the time. Others were rushing to Prodigy.
I recall this very well because while a very small handful of us were pursuing the Web (which was non-graphical until spring 1994) as a publishing tool, lots of newspapers weren't thinking twice about the Internet. In fact, in early 1994 a good friend of mine from Knight Ridder, who was about to speak about the big AOL deal they had going with the Mercury Center, stopped me to ask what Landmark was up to. I told him we had just bought an Internet company and were publishing on the Web, and his response was, "I wonder if the Internet will ever get beyond the tekkies..."
By the time the Mercury News was on the Web in late 1994, there must have been about a dozen papers already publishing. We had three: The Virginian-Pilot, The Roanoke (Va.) Times and the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C.
Gordon Borrell
Vice President
of New Media
Landmark Publishing Group
Norfolk, Va.
Inside Innovation
Iam the press foreman at the Antelope Valley Press in Palmdale, Calif. Our press is a ten-unit Urbanite with one folder and seven pasters.
Over the years I have noticed some areas in both the pasters and press that needed improvement. I designed, built and implemented a web-aligning system for the pasters which automatically keeps webs aligned during splice cycles and with badly wound rolls. I replaced the paddle web detectors with optical detectors which don't drag the web or flip over breaking webs (see http://www.avpress.com/webguide.)
Adjusting the sock roller and water ball had always been a hassle. I designed a self-adjusting bolt eliminating this adjustment and making sock-roller changes much quicker. The standard adjustments for the nipper rings on our press were too coarse and could not be set by any measurable data. I replaced the bracket assembly with air pistons connected to air regulators with gauges. Now nips can be set from outside the folder to a predetermined tension. This not only decreased waste but also greatly reduced nipper marks. Safety was also increased because my operators no longer need to go into the folder to adjust nips.
What I'm trying to show is that there is room for improvement in the pressroom. Companies need to support employee suggestions and help implement them. My company has worked right alongside me in all these endeavors.
George Fischer
Pressroom
Foreman
Antelope Valley Press
Palmdale, Calif.