Paper adapts to technology’s changes

Here’s how it worked in 1950: A reporter covering a University of Michigan game in Ann Arbor would type his article and hand it off to Western Union, where an employee would retype and transmit it. The Western Union telegraph office in Flint would then deliver the report to the newspaper, where typesetters at huge, complicated Linotype machines would type the report yet again to cast it in metal for printing.

MARY ANN CHICK WHITESIDE Journal New Media Manager

Or how about 1927? A searchlight beam shone from The Flint Journal building to let people know how the mayoral race was going. Every hour, the pattern of the beam across the sky indicated who was leading. Those who waited downtown could view the latest results projected on a building across from the newspaper.

One way or another, The Journal has always sought to get news out swiftly. E-mail, cellphones and the Internet are just the latest methods.

Still, according to some, newer isn’t always better.

Religion Editor Betty Brenner has lived through many changes at the newspaper. An Apple iMac computer sits on her desk — but within reach (although rarely used) is an IBM Selectric II, one of the last typewriters left in the building.

For Brenner, who first used a manual typewriter, then an electric and now the iMac — which all reporters now have — the tool used to produce the story doesn’t matter.

“I just want to write quickly and get it down,” Brenner said.

She’s also adjusting to The Journal’s new electronic archive.

Since the mid 1930s, Journal staffers have relied on a library filled with folders of articles and photographs clipped from the paper and filed by name and subject. A 1979 report showed that the newspaper had 1.3 million “clips” and photos filed.

Reporters and editors can now call up past articles on their computers at their desks, searchable by any word. But Brenner remembers when she could give a librarian an idea of the story she wanted and get a clip or two back.

“Computers can’t read your mind,” Brenner said. “And they don’t realize that stories are about the same people even though one reporter used a nickname and another the full name.”

Technology unstoppable

Even so, there’s no stopping progress.

THE FLINT JOURNAL FILES Clifford Weiler works at the keyboard of a large Intertype machine that set oversize advertising display type in 1954. The complex Intertypes and Linotypes cast ‘slugs’ of metal type one line at a time.

Nearly 70 years after the searchlight fanned the skies, The Journal had another bright idea: using its voice mail system to update election night callers. The recorded messages let staff keep working on stories instead of answering the phone.

Today, The Flint Journal uses computers, telephone lines, satellites and plenty of cooperation to deliver information when and where people want it.

Besides the daily printed newspaper, information is delivered through The Flint Journal Connect: VoiceLine automated phone system and online.

Through VoiceLine, callers with a touch-tone telephone can hear satellite-delivered or locally recorded information on breaking national or world events, pro wrestling, stock quotes, weather and countless other subjects. Some of the more popular requests are for detailed sports information.

Today, VoiceLine delivers more than 25,000 messages of information weekly. Election nights are one of the busiest for the system.

Computers have become easier to use, and computer production systems less convoluted.

Longtime Sports writer Len Hoyes recalls years of typing into a computer that spit out a ribbon of perforated tape. The tape was then run through a machine that automated the Linotypes, producing typeset hot-metal copy with no one at the keyboard.

“The computers today let us get information much quicker,” Hoyes said.

Sometimes, new technology was quick to give way to even newer services. From 1994-96, The Flint Journal Connect: FaxLine offered specialized information on stocks or travel information for a small fee.

Replacing it was the rapidly expanding online world.

Online ventures started in 1991 with two staff e-mail accounts.

“Remember, the e-mail was so slow — 2400-baud modems, I think — you could read the e-mail word by word as it came over the computer,” recalled Tom Cheek, who works with Journal computer systems.

The newspaper went online in November 1994, participating in a text-only system offered by Genesee Free-Net, a community computer network. Those with access to the Internet could learn about the history of the newspaper, its Newspapers in Education program, and how to contact employees.

In March 1997, select articles made their online debut on Michigan Live, fl.mlive.com. (New address in 2003: mlive.com/fljournal)

Today, The Journal publishes nearly all of its locally generated articles at Michigan Live. In March 2001, people looked at 1.04 million pages that included fl.mlive.com as part of the Web address.

In December 2000, when a snowstorm prevented The Journal from publishing, those with Internet access could see photos and articles posted by Flint Journal staff who made it to work.

THE FLINT JOURNAL FILES The Teletype was a staple of newspapering for decades. It was a kind of automated type writer that could transmit and receive copy — a little like a fax machine.

The Flint portion of Michigan Live registered about 10,000 more page views that day than it had a week earlier, according to Kevin Nichols of Michigan Live.

“It was definitely a much bigger, bigger day for your online edition that day,” said Nichols, managing editor at Michigan Live. “That leads me to believe at least some of our readers did get their daily Flint Journal fix online — maybe for the first time.“

The relationship with Michigan Live also allows Journal staff to participate in live chats.

Columnist Andrew Heller hosted the first chat, drawing more chatters than rock musician Ted Nugent had a week earlier.

Entertainment editor and movie critic Ed Bradley hosted a chat when Academy Award nominations were announced in February 2000.

In early 2000, The Journal created flintjournal.com. In March, the site — which showcases Journal-sponsored events and information on contacting the newspaper — had 40,000 page views.

Getting the news

Technology also helps The Journal get news. As the cost of computers dropped and the capabilities increased, journalists began to use spreadsheets and other programs to find news.

At first, the journalists used computers in other departments after hours. Then, a newsroom computer mainly used for graphics was equipped with a simple spreadsheet. Today, a variety of computers and programs are available to help mine stories from data and numbers.

For the first time, The Journal could look at voter turnout and use available demographic data and surveys to analyze local elections. That meant reporters didn’t need to wait days for a political consultant to analyze the results.

Much of the information for the 1990 Census was available in digital formats, allowing reporters to quickly crunch numbers and spot population trends.

By 1991, The Journal had created databases that allowed it to compare crime throughout the region, including a look at crime at Flint’s two major shopping centers, Genesee Valley and Courtland Center.

Other computer-assisted stories included:

• A look at how race affected mortgage applications.

• An analysis of types of cancers by location.

• Comparisons of athletic budgets in school districts.

• How City of Flint pension payments differed.

• Where tax abatements were granted in Genesee County and what resulted from the actions.

• Analysis of who got concealed gun permits.

“Sometimes things just scream at you,” said reporter Linda Angelo, describing how facts can jump out when properly organized with the help of a computer.

Angelo’s computer-assisted report on the proliferation of alcohol stores in minority neighborhoods won a second-place award from the Michigan Press Association.

“If you had to do that (research) manually, it would just take you much longer,” she said. “In some ways it would be almost impossible.”

Reporter Christofer Machniak agreed.

“In some cases, you would almost need a team of reporters to sift through data and compare information,” he said. “It allows one reporter the opportunity to look at (larger) issues easier.”

Both said The Journal needs to expand its computer-assisted reporting capabilities and training. Currently, not all reporters have spreadsheet programs on the computers at their desks.

“I think we’ve started,” said Angelo, “but I think we have a long way to go.”

Computers to the fore

As early as 1964, news articles in The Journal talked about computer systems that would do accounting, billing, payroll and circulation work for the newspaper.

THE FLINT JOURNAL / SUE MAYER News from The Journal began appearing on the Michigan Live Web site, fl.mlive.com, in 1997.

By 1965, there was an official computer division of The Flint Journal, said Jim Thomas, manager of hardware systems for Booth Computer Division. That Journal operation grew into the Booth Computer Division in 1970.

For several years, however, The Journal was the core of its own computer operations and those of the seven other Booth newspapers.

Thomas also remembers “one of our programmers writing one of the first word processing programs and selling that.”

In April 1973, more computers took over the work once done by specialists. The Journal moved from the old hot-type system to computerized photocomposition.

Editors edited stories, assigned headlines, and then sent the finished work to the composing room on a computer tape. Someone would then feed the tape into a phototypesetter to expose photographic paper. That process produced the story image on film, ready for paste-up.

Today, computers do most of the paste-up work. Editors, artists and designers use computers to edit, design and finish pages for the camera department.

Photographers gave up making prints years ago, scanning processed negatives into a computer instead, and now even the negatives are gone. Journal photography is completely digital.

Turnaround time is a fraction of what it once was for many things The Journal does. The paper used Census 2000 data for business clients, circulation studies and news reports just nine months after the numbers were collected nationwide.

The pace of technology — and its impact on journalism — is one change we can count on in the future.

New Media Manager Mary Ann Chick Whiteside started at The Journal in 1978. She is responsible for audiotext and online operations, and can be reached at (810) 766-6343 or mwhiteside@flintjournal.com.