April 1999, Vol. 10, No. 4

Quark’s quake

Management shake-up belies potential of 'kinder, gentler' company

Our story so far: After years of dominance in the page layout field with its flagship XPress product, Quark Inc. of Denver releases the 4.0 version of XPress in November 1997.

Immediately, problems occur -- not with the software, but with the customers. Turns out that the 4.0 release doesn't support the XTension technology of the previous versions and that XTension developers will have to write new XTensions for the new version. There will be a long lead time on the new XTensions, because Quark neglected to tell XTension developers how the new technology worked before releasing 4.0 to the public.

Meanwhile, the second-largest software company in the world -- Adobe Systems Inc., which just happens to specialize in pre-press -- realizes it got left at the station when it comes to page layout software. Oh, yeah, it’s got PageMaker, the product-category pioneer, but in the world of professional page layout, PageMaker is an also-ran. So, Adobe begins building a new page layout application from the ground up.

Responding to criticism from its customer base, Quark goes out and hires a new chief operating officer whose task is to make Quark more responsive to customers. The new COO, Chuck Bland, puts together a team of sales and marketing professionals; he also attempts to make the company more customer-focused.

A confluence of circumstances puts Adobe in an awkward position: It’s got the new page layout program -- then code-named K2, later to be christened InDesign -- in the last stages of development when its stock takes a tumble. Quark founders Fred Ebrahimi and Tim Gill make a public proposal to buy Adobe and merge it with Quark (this is not an idle threat: with more than two million copies of XPress sold, Ebrahimi and Gill are multimillionaires and could easily raise the cash for a merger).

Though they vehemently deny any connection, the cynics in the pre-press world say that the Quark move is designed specifically to kill K2. Nonetheless, Adobe’s unwillingness to be acquired by Quark thwarts Ebrahimi and Gill.

During this time, Bland is building up his team and puts together a new group called Quark Marketing Inc. QMI is aimed directly at the integration business -- an area of which Quark had always said it wanted no part.

In fact, Bland sends a message to the publishing industry while speaking at the Newspaper Association of America’s SuperConference (see The Cole Papers, February 1999). Those hearing the speech agree that the message is that there will be a new "kinder, gentler" Quark.

Then, in early March, Adobe unveils InDesign. As you'll see from Correspondent Steven E. Brier’s story inside, Quark responds in a "congenial" manner to the InDesign announcement.

Nonetheless, just days following the Seybold meeting, Ebrahimi and Gill shake up Quark. The owners sideline Bland with "special projects," while they outright fire the sales and marketing team Bland put together: Kurt Dressel, the vice president of sales and marketing; Robert Farquhar, the vice president of business development at QMI; Robert Yoder, the director of marketing at QMI, and many others.

Will Quark be kinder and gentler? It’s hard to see how, with those who made that a priority now sidelined or gone. Why the shake-up? Nobody knows for sure, but it’s a good guess that the industry’s fawning over InDesign caused Quark’s owners to panic. They must believe that the processes and policies that made them rich will help them defeat InDesign.

There’s just one problem: Quark won before, when it had the better application; it’s hard to see how XPress can win in the face of InDesign.

Also inside, Correspondent Marion J. Love takes a look at newspaper feature transmission in light of the Internet and, wrapping up the issue, Correspondent L. Carol Christopher takes a look at flat panel technology -- the keystone to tablet computers that will make digital delivery of news oh, so palatable.

Sandwiched in between is a contribution from a newcomer, Susan Cook. Formerly a reporter in her native New Zealand, Cook came to the United States a few years back to get a graduate degree. With time working in new media at Gannett Co. Inc. under her belt, Cook has elected to become a free-lance writer, and we're happy to have her aboard here.

And she doesn't have to worry -- the only quakes here will be of the tectonic plate variety.

--David M.Cole