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How do newspapers do it? (Was: Volume to Internet)
Subject:How do newspapers do it? (Was: Volume to Internet) From:Steven Jong <SteveFJong -at- AOL -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 15 Sep 1998 10:59:15 EDT
This talk of how the newspapers managed to print the Starr report so quickly
(450+ pages overnight) reminds me of an engineer who once asked me, "If our
local paper can print 200 pages every day, why can't you finish this manual
any faster?" (He was *not* joking 8^(
Basically, what I told him was that a newspaper mainly consists of business
ads, want ads, real-estate listings, personals, features written in advance,
and wire-service copy, none of which the editorial staff has to touch--it's a
matter of layout, not content. Most of the rest is news articles, which do
have to be written fresh; but despite the one-day schedule, the newspaper
reporter has an advantage over the technical writer: the subject-matter
experts never get to review or comment on the story. (In the case of the Starr
report, the subject-matter expert would have *loved* a review copy!)
-- Steve
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Steven Jong, Documentation Team Manager ("Typo? What tpyo?")
Lightbridge, Inc, 67 S. Bedford St., Burlington, MA 01803 USA mailto:SJong -at- lightbridge -dot- com 781.359.4902[V], 781.359.4500[F]
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