The Cole Digest, December 20, 1995

My associate Pete Wetmore thinks a New Jersey woman may hold the longevity record for working in systems.

Anna Fragetta was a secretary at The Record in Hackensack in 1980 when her boss, the deputy managing editor, "roped me into it," she said. "I have a knack for it."

After having served as assistant systems manager for a dozen years, she succeeded Paul Schulman as manager three years ago. She oversees a 10-CPU, 155-terminal Atex system used by about 300 people.

What about her job has changed that Fragetta dislikes?

"I think the biggest change is probably in formatting, which was one of my favorite things to do," she said. "Back then we had to write formats for everything -- I thought that was the best part of the job."

Her future may look much like her past.

"I'd like to stay in systems," Fragetta said. "I enjoy it. Because I wasn't a writer or an editor, I was a secretary and I didn't really like that. I prefer this."

"And if I can't stay in this capacity, as a systems manager, I think I'd like to work on a Mac and design pages. I've used them before and it was fun -- plus I'd have a lot less responsibility."

One man seeking new responsibility got it: Paul De Groot has been the inaugural coordinator of electronic publishing at the Edmonton Journal for one year.

His roots go deeply into the newsroom, having joined the 156,000-circulation Alberta, Canada, morning paper as a reporter in 1980. While covering the church beat, De Groot got religion: He acquired his first computer in 1984 -- a Texas Instruments TI99 for $100.

He went to the store, "charged home, plugged this sucker in and in 15 minutes it was saying 'Hello world!' to me," De Groot said. "I was really hooked."

About a year later he bought a Tandy 100 -- "probably one of the most brilliant pieces of technology ever made" -- which he used to broaden his horizons. "With its built-in modem, I could access bulletin boards with it. I began to do a little more of it in the newsroom."

As De Groot expanded his knowledge, he also developed more tools for the newsroom. He trained people -- and trainers -- in XyWrite, so he could devote more time to other projects, such as creating a photo ordering system, an archive that indexed photos (while not storing images themselves), and introducing e-mail.

The excitement gave way to tedium, then frustration. "I got very tired of it," De Groot said. "It was becoming more and more a tech support thing."

And, he found, he wasn't in the decision-making loop.

"What really blew it for me is we decided to replace the Harris system with another system," he said. Being a Southam paper, the Journal answered to the suits in Ontario. "Headquarters in Toronto said, 'You shall use Package A.' I was told we'll have to sell this to the users and I said, 'Well, I'm not a salesman.'"

The pagination decision left him "very upset," De Groot said. "What bothered me the most was the people who made this decision were people who never worked in a newsroom. I just thought the whole thing was an abortion from beginning to end -- which was born out by a consultant's report in the end."

Like other system editors, De Groot found his concept of the job at odds with higher-ups: "If someone with my knowledge and experience counts for so little, then in fact I am just a technician -- I'm a screwdriver."

Because "I told the editor early on that the day I become a technician, I quit," he was able to propose a new job, delving into electronic publishing. He left the systems office ("I was replaced by two people") and began reporting to the publisher in March 1994.

He's now working on such ideas as putting Journal pages on the World-Wide Web, and exploring many possibilities in the electronic realm -- with anticipation, not frustration.

"At this stage of the development, we're back at that exciting stage when you're getting wide-eyed over what you can be doing. I love to be learning something new. ..."

"That's what I love about journalism," De Groot said. "You can change your job dramatically without changing the place where you work."

Thanks for the series, Pete.

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 subscribers 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.

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