Assign Online
As the saying goes, "Timing is everything."
With the Olympics soon to arrive, timing for a newsroom-tracking system couldn't be better at The Salt Lake Tribune. The Utah paper is also moving to a new editorial system scattered across three floors. People will no longer be in each other's line of sight—the key method of work-flow tracking at many papers.
Tribune Solutions, a research-and-development subsidiary of the paper, itself a subsidiary of AT&T, developed an Internet-based system that helps schedule and track assignments. Introduced at NEXPO¨99, two Texas papers and the Tribune plan to use it.
Editors use Web-browsing software to make assignments, which are stored in a database on the paper's Internet server. As an assignment moves through the editorial work flow, the system e-mails the appropriate people. For example, when a photographer returns to the newsroom with a photo, it automatically notifies the photo editor and the reporter working on the accompanying story.
But that's not all. Using cell phones with alphanumeric paging technology, the system can even reach photographers in the field. "There are split-second things a photographer needs to catch," explains Glenn Cruickshank, Tribune Solutions director.
The system's work scheduler also overlays assignments on the overall schedule to flag conflicts. The schedule can be viewed or modified via browser, and can even be set as a Windows 98/NT Active Desktop, which displays Web content in a PC's background.
Billed as the first Internet-based newsroom assignment system, the module, like Tribune Solutions' Newsview line of archiving tools, is marketed by Reed Technology and Information Services of Horsham, Pa.
Nancy Lowther is president of Lowther Training and Development in Scarborough, Ontario. Phone is (416) 282-1890.
Remote Control
More than just another way to reach readers, the Internet is also a tool to do business more quickly and less expensively.
Two fairly new software products from Global Digital Technologies Inc., a 3-year-old El Dorado Hills, Calif., company, are part of that trend. Internet NewsBook and Internet AdBook give remote users the ability to use the Internet to link securely to a paper's front-end systems to input stories, messages and classifieds.
GDT President Richard Grover calls NewsBook, a server application bridging editorial front ends and the Internet, "the most cost-effective way to connect remote journalists to an editorial system."
Browser-based, NewsBook can interface with any front-end system and drop stories into whatever point of the work flow editors choose. The San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner and the Times Union in Albany, N.Y., have installed the system.
Typical uses are for offsite journalists, stringers and foreign correspondents. Because such correspondents typically can access the Internet with a local phone call, newspapers can drastically reduce long-distance charges. Grover cites the Mercury News' network of high-tech business correspondents throughout the Pacific Rim.
"Prior to NewsBook, these journalists would dial long distance to San Jose to access wire stories and messages, and to file their own stories," he says. "With NewsBook, they make a local phone call and save the Mercury News thousands of dollars a month."
Unforeseen by developers was NewsBook's use as an intranet solution, giving Macintosh-based photo desks and art departments access to stories and messages on non-Mac systems.
A similar product for classified-advertising systems, Internet AdBook features a Java application providing a real-time, browser-based connection to classified front ends. Instead of having to call sales reps to quote ads and place orders, advertising agencies can use AdBook to do it themselves. Advertisers also can run their own reports, preview ads and send messages to account reps.
"Pricing and justification are always 100 percent accurate, because those tasks are performed in the same classified system that sales reps use," Grover says. That translates into cost-savings from reduced write-offs, and cuts staff time needed to key in and format ads.
The Mercury News has been using AdBook for about a year with a number of agencies. The Orlando Sentinel also plans to use it for a private-party ad-order application allowing Internet users to price, format, order and pay for classified ads online.
Anna America is a Tulsa, Okla., free-lance writer. E-mail, aamerica@ci.tulsa.ok.us.
Meet Doris
A few years ago, the Reading (Pa.) Eagle Company began searching for an editorial system that would help us achieve full pagination with familiar tools. A unique opportunity led us to "Doris," a state-of-the-art product from a Finnish firm.
Developed by Anygraaf Oy, a significant player in Scandinavia, Doris will be introduced in the U.S. market later this year. Anygraaf Research and Development Manager Tuomo Telkka helped customize Doris to meet our editorial and advertising needs.
In its simplest form, Doris is an SQL-based document-management system using PCs or Macintoshes to handle the creation, routing, tracking and archiving of all standard document types. The system works with all common SQL databases and provides support for in-house or remote browser-based access.
We chose Microsoft Word as the text editor largely because our staff knows it. We then heavily customized it to meet our needs. Word's Visual Basic macros give us tight integration with QuarkXPress to provide exact hyphenation and justification. Doris also has its own SGML/XML-based text editor, Ed.
Since we were already using QuarkXPress, we were reluctant to move to a system that introduced a different layout engine. Doris lets us keep 'XPress, providing an 'XTension to handle layout and H&J. Among its features are pre-built article geometries, automatic box-and-line drawing, and direct links between the actual article and the text on the page, providing automatic reflow and ensuring our text archives reflect the print content.
Doris also gives us Planner, an edition-management and tracking module allowing editors to plan entire editions, reserve newsholes and assign articles, pictures and graphics to pages. Planner offers a bird's-eye view of element status, and offers support for retail- and classified-ad placement.
Doris acts as an image-management system. Support for open-pre-press interface, low-resolution image generation is built-in, eliminating the need for a separate system. Doris also imports wire-service images and supports common image formats.
Our Internet publishing also gets help from Doris, which provides a true "write once, publish many" environment. Its Internet-publishing features help configure our World Wide Web site and map articles to the appropriate area. This ensures that Phillies stories appear on the site's sports section.
To maintain a common interface, we also use Doris for archiving. Doris automatically moves text, pages and images into archives, and maintains searchable full-text indices. It also supports the use of a CD-based storage system and provides utilities to prepare material for CD creation.
Brown is manager of the Reading Eagle Company's IT department. E-mail, bbrown@readingeagle.com. Hunn is manager of the Editorial Systems Department. E-mail, ahunn@readingeagle.com.