THERE is nothing like a deadline to get things done at a newspaper and, when it came to installing a pagination system at the South China Morning Post, we had a deadline that was harder to meet than one any news editor could throw at us. It was not only the need for a pagination system that provided the pressure. After all, we had survived quite nicely on a competent mix of computerised output and manual paste-up for almost 20 years. At the Post, we needed the pagination not so much as a technological advancement but as a way of coping with a planned split between editorial and production sites, allowing the benefits of keeping reporters close to the news while giving our production and distribution departments the space needed to get the job done. That was where the deadline came in. The compression effect of doing business in Hong Kong meant we would attempt to do in six months - something that in other parts of the world could take two or three times as long to accomplish. The process began the way any large-scale investment should: with plenty of planning and assessment. More than three months were spent testing various systems, EdPage among them, to assess both their suitability for our operation and the work that would be required to install, set up and introduce them to more than 200 journalists without interrupting the flow of Hong Kong's largest English-language daily. As the assessment gathered pace, it soon became obvious that the Atex computer system would be the natural choice. Once that choice had been made, and with a six-month window for training and implementation, we were understandably reluctant to consider any large-scale reformatting or re-equipping of the newsroom. For a newspaper that had become just as much a part of Hong Kong daily life as the Star Ferry or Hongkong Bank, there was little point in considering something that left style open to daily change. So, EdPage then, and the process of bringing in the equipment, setting it up and training the trainers began in October last year. We had little more than six months before the editorial users would start their move to Dorset House in Quarry Bay. It would also be eight months before the presses rolled in Tai Po and the old SCMP building closed its doors for the last time. With pagination being the key element in our move to remote output, we had to consider ways of introducing EdPage as quickly and as comprehensively as possible without any disruption to schedules. A training and introduction schedule was drawn up, giving our news and foreign desks the first crack at the new technology, knowing that their late deadlines and edition changes would give the system a more thorough workout than features or special reports. The news and foreign sections took to EdPage very quickly and with little fuss. Once we had established their needs, and it helped to have trainers with hands-on experience of daily newspaper production, they were fully on-line within six weeks. The front page was regularly being turned out in one piece while the majority of the newsroom staff was still adjusting to the appearance of IBM RS6000 terminals, which dwarfed the PCs they replaced. Having seen the late sections away on EdPage, the rest went on-line relatively easily. Apart from the business tabulation and the particular problems thrown up by our racing section, which caused a few sleepless nights, much of the formatting already existed and could be translated without much fuss. Some of the sports and features formatting needed work to use it on EdPage, mostly due to the fact it had been written over the years by three or four different people, each with their own way of working. The speed of installation was helped by the fact we were concentrating solely on text and rules, while behind-the-scenes work was going on to tackle the problems posed by pictures and graphics. Putting pictures on the page was definitely our intention but the variety of methods and the puzzling complexity of file formats and scanning equipment was keeping the production, photographic and EDP departments in a constant state of flux. With the only guidelines being to maintain the quality of colour reproduction and to align the various sections of the newspaper with the new technology, we had first to assess the methods we knew and then ascertain which of those would survive the new era and which would need amending. As the process went on, we were also limited by delivery of the computer hardware needed to run this new technology. So it was that procedures were drawn up and new routines implemented, even as the new machinery was being installed. This parallel implementation went remarkably smoothly, aided by the co-ordinated approach of the departments concerned. We found that planning was one thing, implementation another, and were able to work effectively under the pressure of our June deadline, simply because we knew a work-around approach was the only way to get the job done on time. A few weeks short of our six-month target, we were able to announce the end of Phase One, with all sections moving to our new city office safely on-line and comfortable with Edpage. It was by no means the end of the job, but at least we knew our way around the system and were confident of finishing the job in time for Phase Two, which would see the remaining sections and our production department moving north to the new, purpose-built centre in Tai Po. Now, as we approach the first anniversary of the Edpage project, the entire editorial section of the South China Morning Post is produced on EdPage, with black-and-white pictures, text, rules and graphics output straight to film over the computer network, which now spans about 30 kilometres between the two sites. Richard Simmons was formerly the Post's Systems Development Editor.
