“” Items

Review of Local Websites, 1999

In 1999, the PAFET group did an important information sharing project. Each group reported on their web site strategy and methods used to execute that strategy, marketing implementations, measurement of success, content mix and traffic.  Among the newspaper sites that reported was:

  • The Arizona Republic, AZ
  • Dallas Morning News, TX
  • Providence Journal, RI
  • St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO
  • News & Observer, NC
  • The Press Enterprise, CA
  • Sacramento Bee, CA
  • Star News, IN
  • Star Tribune, MN
  • Town Talk, LA

There is also a table that compares all of the website traffic among PAFET members.

Electronic Newspaper of the Future, 1992

One of the more innovative folks in the design universe was a professor from Spain, Dr. Juan A. Giner.  Giner was at the School of Journalism  at the University of Navarra. In 1992, he asked several folks for their thoughts about electronic newspapers.  This is before the Internet.  I think he was using some of the information for a research paper and for a presentation at the Summit Meeting of Editors and Publishers, a European conference, I’m guessing.

Here’s what I wrote, the conclusion of my thoughts, sent via FAX:

They have information to sell, regardless of the form it takes to reach the reader. Unfortunately, only a few see the road ahead; too many are looking behind at the road they have just traveled.

If the current leadership fails in understanding the market place or fails to adjust to the needs of the news consumer, then the consequences will be two-fold:

• Many more companies will go out of business.
• Many more companies will be bought by those who understand the needs of the marketplace and replace those publishers and editors who do not.

The future will belong to the quick and smart. Be neither quick nor smart and you’ll be out of the game.

It was fun to think about the future.

PAFET Operating Committee Meeting, July 1995

PAFET Operating Committee Agenda and meeting notes, held in Seattle, WA on July 18-19, 1995. This document also includes the organization’s mission statement: The mission of PAFET shall be to assist individual member companies in the development of mechanisms for presentation and marketing of information using new technolgies, in order to help the member companies make better individual decisions concerning the future of their businesses.

PAFET Operating Committee, April 1996

PAFET Operating Committee meeting and agenda. Held in Phoenix, AZ. Includes documents about “Elect to Connect,” a project involving Newspapers in Education.

The NIE Project was initially established as an experiment in conducting joint development within PAFET. This area was selected in part based on the existing relationships (and history of collaboration) among PAFET NIE representatives. After several discussions, the group decided to focus the project on jointly developing curriculum to support the 1996 Elections. The curriculum would contain both a print and “new media” component (e.g. online/Internet, diskette, and/or CD-ROM).