While very few newspapers in North America can claim to be all digital, many are 90 percent of the way there. To get a handle on how a publisher could create an all-digital environment, Presstime went to a dozen industry players and asked them to sketch out how they would start a newspaper from scratch. Rather than dwell on specific hardware or software, which tends to be dictated as much by budgets as real needs or wants, we advised them to step back and outline the big picture, looking at workflow and the impact the changes will have on jobs. We call this paper The Clean Slate. H. Grady Cooper, an executive with Harris Publishing Systems Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., seconds Nierman's view.
Databases figure prominently in that plan.
In theory, we could even use a database to distribute software. Technically, we could do it now, but I don't think the market is ready. Using the same technologies as the World Wide Web, an intranet reaches only employees and provides an operationwide port for internal communications. He'd add functions such as automatic verification of forms and improved user interfaces to maximize such systems. And it can help build community among workers, reporting the scores of the staff softball teams or providing a bulletin board to announce graduations or births.