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While still a journalism student at San Francisco State in 1969, Howard Finberg served as a campus correspondent for United Press International, ABC News, and the San Francisco Examiner. Letters from each organization formally confirmed his appointment — recognizing his early professionalism and reporting skill at just 20 years old.
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At the 1996 Society of Newspaper Design (SND) Convention in Indianapolis, Howard Finberg challenged the room to confront a growing reality: newspapers were being outpaced not by technology, but by their own slow response to it.
Speaking as part of the Friday afternoon session lineup, Finberg emphasized that designers, editors, and strategists needed to embrace change holistically — not just with visuals, but with workflows, platform strategies, and reader engagement. He warned against seeing digital as a cosmetic redesign and urged the profession to think structurally, not stylistically.
“The longer we cling to the idea that change will slow down, the further behind we fall.”
In hindsight, this address stands as an early public moment where Finberg not only analyzed disruption, but dared the design community to lead it.
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Howard Finberg’s digital journey began not with a newsroom overhaul or a professional directive — but with an Atari 800 personal computer, outfitted with a then-whopping 8K of memory. It wasn’t purchased for gaming or novelty. It was purchased for learning, exploration, and to better understand the technology that was already beginning to reshape communication.
This early-1980s decision marked the start of a lifelong practice: getting hands-on with the future before it arrived. The Atari wasn’t just a machine. It was a gateway — to BASIC programming, file management, and eventually to deeper insights about how information systems would drive the next generation of journalism.
Looking back, the Atari 800 wasn’t just a hobbyist’s tool. It was an early investment in digital literacy — and a quiet but profound signal that journalism’s future wouldn’t be written only with ink, but also with code.
In early December 2002, I published an article for Poynter Online based on a speech I gave at the opening of Newsplex, a prototype newsroom of the future, at the University of South Carolina. Newsplex was a cooperative project between private and public media organizations and academia at the USC’s College of Mass Communications and Information Studies.
My topic was convergence and the changing media corporate culture. I talked about how before convergence can succeed in the newsroom, it has to be adopted in the boardroom, where major cultural and business changes are also needed. Here’s a taste of the article:
The bigger issue isn’t whether we can change the corporate culture of the boardroom to embrace convergence. Rather, it’s the need to focus on learning and adjusting the characteristics of the entire organization.
With education we can affect the learned behaviors of the media industry’s leaders, its journalists and other workers.
And when I talk about the media industry leaders, I am not talking about just the people who sit in the boardrooms. Leadership includes managers and staff members, who actually can be more influential than their bosses.
In the spring of 1994 the Interactive Services Association conducted its third annual survey of online users. The report was released in spring 1995. The survey goal was to better understand how online [and early Internet / Web] users went about their cyber business.
These four services represented 85 per cent of the total consumer online market in the spring of 1994. Users were self-selected, in that they participated in the survey of their own volition. These are the service providers whose data appears in this report:
- America Online
- CompuServe (including ZiffNet)
- GEnie
- Prodigy
In total, the survey received more than 12,000 completed responses. As the volume of response varied from vendor to vendor, data were weighted to reflect the subscriber market share associated with each of the service providers at the time of the survey to give a more accurate national picture.
Some of the headlines from this report:
It is fascinating to look at users from that period — more than 30 years ago from the date of this posting in 2022.
I joined the Chicago Tribune as a copy reader sometime during the week of June 4, 1972. I’m not trying to be vague about the actual start date, I just don’t remember. However, I do have my “hire letter” from Harold E. Hutchings, executive editor:
“This confirms that, as stated in our telephone conversation today, we will start you at $230 per week and that you will be ready for work on June 4, 1972. Since this is a Sunday, it well may be that you will not be scheduled in until June 5. We can settle that matter when you reach the city.”
A weekly salary of $230 is about $12,000 a year in 1972 dollars; in 2021 dollars, that’s about $75,000. Pretty nice for my almost first job. It actually was my second job as I was working at the SF Examiner at the time. I had two years of experience. That’s not a lot, I realized.
Sidebar: Give the time difference between Chicago and that I was working the morning shift at the SF Examiner, Hutchings had to send an airmail, special delivery letter asking me to give him a call. I got the letter and called him the same day. And the rest is, as they say, history.
I was appointed the first president of the newly formed SND Foundation. We created the foundation with these goals:
The SND Foundation, incorporated in February, is the research and education arm of the Society of Newspaper Design. The primary missions of SND Foundation are:
- To contribute, through education and research, to the newspaper design and graphics profession
- To develop and improve the capabilities of those who currently have (or have an interest in) careers in newspaper graphics and design.
Here’s a link to the article from SND’s newsletter.
On Jan. 28, 1983 an Chicago Tribune assistant managing editor, Michael Argirion, announced that “Howard Finberg is appointed Photo/Graphics Editor, responsible for the Photo Desk and the Graphics Desk.”
This was an expansion of my duties, as I was currently Graphics Editor. I would hold this position until shortly before I left the Tribune for a stint at the San Jose Mercury News and, later, the San Francisco Chronicle.
In the summer of 1995, a group of editors and other staff members of The Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette worked on a ‘semi-secret’ project — created Phoenix Newspaper’s first online products. The group started with creating a sub-site on American Online. Later, we created an Internet [Web] About AZ Central.
We used our imaginations and research into other online pioneers to figure out what the home screen, the secondary screens and menus. It was an interesting and challenging project.
AZ Central officially launched in November 1995
Howard Finberg gave a speech at the opening of the Newsplex, a prototype newsroom of the future, at the University of South Carolina. Newsplex is a cooperative project between private and public media organizations and academia at the USC’s College of Mass Communications and Information Studies. His topic was “Convergence and the Changing Media Corporate Culture.”
The idea he presented was this: Before convergence can succeed in the newsroom, it has to be adopted in the boardroom, where major cultural and business changes are also needed.
The article/speech kicker:
Next time you are in the boardroom, remember the three “Rs” – research, retraining and risk taking. Remember that it takes a long time to change our cultural templates. But it can be done.
Here’s a link to the complete article.
I was a presenter and an attendee at the American Press Institute’s Design 2000 and Beyond seminar.
Twenty-two leading U.S. and Canadian newspaper designers/editors were invited to API to discuss “newspapers at the turn of the century, from a design standpoint. What would newspapers look like and how would they evolve?”
Here’s a slide show of the book that produced from the seminar: https://www.digitalfuturist.com/home/memo-collection/design-2000-an-american-press-institute-project/design-2000-a-view-of-the-future-from-1988/
The Society of News Design [at that point the group was called Newspaper Designers of America] held its first convention. It was in Chicago, at the Tribune, Sept. 29-30, 1979. I held the newly created job of graphics editor [at that time it was titled graphics coordinator] at the newspaper. It was a new type of job, as I was an editor, not an artist. I worked closely with the art department to create informational graphics for the daily and Sunday pages. Tony Majeri, a founding member of the Society, invited me to describe my job to the 150 members at the convention.
The first edition of Design magazine ran my speech as an article. I still wish I had a chance to be more inclusive in my presentation. However, it does give readers an indication of the work the Tribune was doing at the time.
Here’s a link to an excerpt [PDF] of Design magazine that has two articles about the 1979 SND convention:
https://www.digitalfuturist.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/designmagazine_03_1980.pdf
Moving to the Arizona Republic was a big and important step in my career. I finally reached the level I had work toward — the second level in newsroom management. In 1987, The Republic was run by the managing editor. Next on the organization chart were the assistant managing editors, of which I was the newest, with a newly created job.
Here’s the press release send by the parent company, Phoenix Newspapers, Inc.
PHOENIX, ARIZ . (July 30, 1987) — Howard I. Finberg, former photography and graphics editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, has been named to the newly created position of assistant managing editor/graphics at The Arizona Republic.
In his new position, Finberg will be responsible for the visual aspects of the paper–supervising the photo, graphic arts and page design departments. He also will play a major role in the redesign of the newspaper, a pioneer in pagination.
Later, after one of the three AMEs left the paper, I would assume responsibilities for the features sections and the Sunday editions.
In addition to the press release, there was a nice note in the newsroom’s newsletter, EN. I like the small personal touch which talked about my interest in cooking.
One of the more interesting and challenging project I undertook as a consultant was as a co-author on a study of online credibility for the Online News Association, which was funded by the Knight Foundation. The purpose of the study was outlined in the press release from ONA:
The study will work to develop and promote principles and guidelines for online journalism focusing on proper relationships between editorial content, advertising and e-commerce; the development of ethical standards and avoidance of conflicts of interest; and appropriate use of hyperlinking in a journalistic environment.
It was a big project and a great learning opportunity about putting together a research project with a level of academic rigor. My co-author was Martha Stone, another consultant.
“The results generated from ONA panel discussions and research will provide a foundation for the ongoing discussions regarding credibility in this very new medium. It is a chance to help shape solid journalistic practices early,” said Howard Finberg, co-director.
The project was announced by ONA via Business Wire release.
In September of 1996, I was promoted to a new job and new responsibilities; from senior editor/information technology to director of information technology. As the press release noted:
He will be responsible for planning of new technology across the company and will work closely with other directors in the development of new products and services. He will report to (John) Oppedahl and will continue to have responsibility for management of PNI’s electronic distribution of information.
It was an important opportunity as it put me on the company’s operating committee. Here’s a link to the story in the Arizona Republic.