The Cole Digest, May 10, 1995

For the last few weeks, we allowed Chris Gulker, former development director of the San Francisco Examiner (now some type of honcho at Apple Computer), to discuss his theories about publishing on the World-Wide Web.

But high-tech at the San Francisco newspapers is not just limited to those in management positions.

During last fall's 12-day strike at the Examiner, Chronicle and San Francisco Newspaper Agency, strikers not only printed a strike newspaper, they also put it on the Internet.

To give you some idea of how these non-management types handled the situation, here are some words by George Powell, a correspondent for The Cole Papers and treasurer of the Northern California Newspaper Guild:

Strikes are no fun, but like war, they can sometimes speed up certain technological processes and make change happen faster than would be the case in the normal life of an organization.

In November, the Internet had real old-fashioned newspaper competition between The Gate -- the on-line versions of the Chronicle and Examiner -- and the Free Press, written by the striking San Francisco journalists.

Though Guild members printed thousands of copies of the Free Press, Examiner Associate Editor Bruce Koon and free-lance writer Marcelo Rodriguez were instrumental in taking the copy from writers and coding it in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) for use by browsers on the World-Wide Web. (Koon has subsequently been named managing editor of the San Jose Mercury News' Mercury Center.)

Rodriguez, a past president of the National Writers Union, and Koon felt a strong obligation to get information out to potential readers who would miss the usual columnists and writers in the struck papers.

"I didn't think of the Internet Free Press as a tactic in the strike," said Rodriguez, "but as a way to provide information to people who weren't getting a newspaper."

The decision to go daily for the Internet version was made, naturally, at the M&M, a bar where many San Francisco newspaper people hang out. An Internet provider, CCNet in Walnut Creek, Calif., was selected as the home for the Free Press files.

The first electronic edition of the Free Press was available less than 48 hours after the strike started on Nov. 1. There were combined Saturday and Sunday editions, and the final Internet Free Press was posted Nov. 14, the day ratification of the new contract was completed.

The daily production routine for the paper consisted of reporters filing stories into the America Online mailbox for the Free Press, and those stories being coded in HTML by Koon on his Powerbook or Rodriguez, who was running a PC under OS/2.

Any graphics used in the printed Free Press were converted and downsized in Adobe Photoshop from TIFF or EPS to the GIF format.

After the first two editions, a script was created for automating HTML coding of stories. Consequently, the "press run" for the Internet edition consisted of running the script on the day's stories, then posting the coded edition.

The Free Press had more than 250,000 "hits," or accesses overall, according to Rodriguez. The busiest day was Nov. 9, he said, when 77,000 accesses were logged.

Although it wasn't an intended consequence of the strike, a large number of people with computers had access to competing newspapers -- and got a glimpse of one possible future for publishing as well.

Onward.

\dmc

[THE COLE DIGEST is written by consultant David M. Cole, editor and publisher of the industry newsletter THE COLE PAPERS. The DIGEST is made available to PressLink members every Wednesday at no extra charge. Send comments by e-mail to cole@plink.geis.com. The COLE DIGEST is the property of The Cole Group, a California sole proprietorship. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of The Cole Group is prohibited. Copyright (C) 1995, The Cole Group. Opinions expressed are those of The Cole Group, unless otherwise noted. [THE COLE PAPERS is a monthly newsletter devoting itself to technology, journalism and publishing. Subscriptions are $117 for 12 issues ($135 outside the U.S.). MasterCard, Visa and American Express cards are accepted. For more information, e-mail cole@plink.geis.com, call (415) 673-2424, fax (415) 673-2449 or write The Cole Group, 2590 Greenwich St., Ste. 9, San Francisco USA 94123-3333.]