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.