Designs and letters
During the past week I've been working at the Willits News - a sister newspaper - while their editor was on vacation. It was a delight to work at this small twice-weekly publication, although I was working on an InDesign system, not the Quark Xpress system that we use at the Daily Journal.
A number of newspapers are beginning to switch to InDesign for one reason: budget.
Some background. In the past 15 years or so newspapers switched to desktop design systems through which the editors lay out the pages on computers instead of composing staff who printed out text and photos and literally pasted them onto big sheets of pasteboard that would then be photographed. The Macintosh computer was found to be the best platform for this and Quark Xpress was the ideal layout programming, because it dovetailed with a wordsmithing program called NewsEdit Pro made by a company called Baseview. NewsEdit Pro was designed for newspapers. It allowed editors to smoothly edit copy and transfer it on to the Quark page seamlessly. The Quark system allowed the editor much more creativity than the old paste-up method. You could instantly change the number of columns, move photos around, enlarge or reduce them, make headlines fit perfectly, all in the simple click of the mouse.
As with all systems, however, the dreaded updates came along. Every time Quark updated, it was hundreds of dollars per computer for new programs. Every time Mac updated, the same applied for operating systems. Baseview's contract for NewsEdit Pro got more and more expensive too. Finally, Mac went to the OS 10 on all its new machines a couple of years ago. The version of NewsEdit Pro we still had can't operate on that system. So we are using older operating systems, limping along with outdated programs because we can't move forward with new Macs (very expensive), new Quark systems (also very expensive) and no NewsEdit Pro (very inconvenient).
Instead, along comes InDesign, a program made by the same folks who make Adobe computer products. The InDesign program, as I learned this week in Willits, works a lot like Quark Xpress, plus it comes bundled with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, giving each editing desk a lot of creative possibilities. (Right now at the UDJ only the photo desk has Photoshop on it and only our composing department computers have Illustrator (which they use to create ads).
The further appeal of Indesign is that it operates on PCs which are vastly less expensive than Macs if your are looking to change out a whole newsroom of computers.
The drawbacks as I saw them this week was a far less smooth transition from the copy editing to the page. Microsoft Word was not created for newspaper copy so the program does not tell you how many column inches you have in a story - important to know as you are planning your page layout. It also does not format to your newspaper's specific text - at UDJ we use Times, size 11 pt. and News Edit pro formats everything into that font and size. With Microsoft Word and InDesign you have to import the copy to the page and then format it into your font and size.
There are a lot of extra steps like that which made editing pages a more lengthy process. I suspect there are short cuts and ways around that which we would figure out as we went along.
If anyone out there is an InDesign expert, I'd love to hear your thoughts on some of our specific challenges since I think we'll likely switch to PCs and InDesign in our next computer changeover.
Some of you may notice we changed our letters policy this week. We got a call this week from someone who was convinced that I would not publish his letter because I disagree with his views. As regular readers and letter writers know, we publish practically all letters unless they are potentially libelous or are really over the top in the hate or getting personal department. Sometimes letters get piled up and we have trouble getting them all published in a timely way. Sometimes letters get lost. It happens. But I have never not published a letter because I disagree with it and or don't like the person writing. However our publisher, Kevin McConnell, felt that our printed letter policy implied that we guarantee publication of all letters. I should say that in practice we do publish all publishable letters - with the exception of letter writers (there are a couple) who send something in five or six times a week. Then I pick the one that is most timely or responsive to something in the UDJ and publish that one. I also do not publish all the many letters we get from prisoners at the jail unless they are specifically discussing jail conditions or something which is of interest to the general public. The ones I discard are generally the long ramblings in legalese after they have spent a couple of minutes in a law library. Other letters that don't get published are letters from outside Mendocino County unless they are addressing a local issue, usually something they read about on our Web site. Finally, except for certain very timely ones, I don't generally publish poems as letters. In fact I was thinking abut hosting a poetry blog on our site. Any interest out there?
People often ask me why I publish long - or even short - rants from people who obviously don't know what they're talking about. As I've said before, I don't think it's my job to decide who should be censored. If there are people out there with views you can't stand, that's the way of the world, and wouldn't you rather know those folks are out there than pretend everyone feels the same way you do? As for thank you letters, I know lots of people who feel they're just boring and should be either moved somewhere else or abandoned. I guess I just feel that they reflect a lot of the good things that go on in our area and give credit where it's due. We do have a 20-business limit on lists of names mentioned to try to keep them short.
Anyway, here's the new policy:
The Daily Journal welcomes letters to the editor. All letters must include
a clear name, signature, return address and phone number. Letters chosen for
publication are generally published in the order they are received, but
shorter, concise letters are given preference. We publish most of the letters
we receive, but we cannot guarantee publication. Names will not be withheld
for any reason. If we are aware that you are connected to a local
organization or are an elected official writing about the organization or
body on which you serve, that will be included in your signature. If you
want to make it clear you are not speaking for that organization, you should
do so in your letter. All letters are subject to editing without notice.
Editing is generally limited to removing statements that are potentially
libelous or are not suitable for a family newspaper. Form letters that are
clearly part of a write-in campaign will not be published. You may drop
letters off at our office at 590 S. School St., or fax letters to 468-3544,
mail to Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 749, Ukiah, 95482 or e-mail them to
udj@pacific.net. E-mail letters should also include hometown and a phone
number.