Prediction shows inevitability of change
Michelle Duggar is pregnant with her 19th child; Jon and Kate are still fighting; and newspapers continue to change. Some things, it seems, are inevitable.
All the recent discussions about The Enterprise’s new eEdition generated a lovely e-mail from an older reader about the nature of change and how we must celebrate rather than resist it.
She wrote to share what she does and doesn’t like about some of our recent changes, but also offered this interesting tidbit:
“In 1953 I was a senior in the journalism school at the University of Missouri. There was a class — Future of Newspapers — we all had to take.
“Although there was TV in those days, there were no personal computers. The speaker told us that in the future there would be no such thing as newspaper delivery to the home, nor would you buy a newspaper at a rack or store.
“You would turn on your TV and the entire newspaper would appear on your TV screen and if you desired it, a printout would roll out beneath the screen.”
That’s not quite the reality of today’s newspapers, but it’s a pretty good estimation considering it came more than a half century ago.
More than one person has asked me if the eEdition means the end of the printed newspaper. No, at least not now.
Will it someday mean we don’t print a newspaper? Probably. Just as it probably will mean that we don’t print other books — even textbooks. With electronic downloads and a variety of devices available to store and display that information, one day it simply will no longer be practical.
It will be just another change that is inevitable.
When I came to The Enterprise almost 30 years ago, reporters still typed on typewriters (albeit electric ones) with carbon paper. Shortly thereafter, we began converting to computers, but it wasn’t a personal computer system like we use now.
It was a mainframe system with all the computer monitors linked to a room on another floor filled with big machines that were the “brains” behind all our work.
The newsroom was equipped with bells and red lights that were supposed to warn us when the computer system was going down, but the reality was, they generally sounded and flashed about 30 seconds after all the computers locked up. Those days were filled with a lot of frustration — and almost-finished stories lost in the chaos that had to be written again.
In the 1920s Enterprise building, the third floor where the newsroom now is housed actually once held linotype machines. Those were the days of hot type — melted lead used to form the letters that would eventually become the newspaper. A skylight in the newsroom — with windows that used to open to let the heat escape, is a reminder of those times.
Next week, The Enterprise continues to change, not a great deal, but slightly. Next Monday’s page 2A will feature a new “Driver’s Seat” column sharing information about road construction and potential traffic problems. That Friday, we’ll return with an updated version of the popular “Asked and Answered” column, so get your questions ready. In between there will be some other modifications we think will improve our product.
We hope you like the changes. There will be more, because that’s what we, not just newspaper people, but human beings do — change, grow and thrive.
In responding to the kind reader who shared her story about the 1953 version of the “Future of Newspapers,” I shared my own story of a similar experience.
Years ago, probably in the early 1980s, a speaker at a professional conference was billed as a “futurist” — someone whose role was to follow trends and predict what might be the next big thing.
She made what at the time seemed an incredible prediction.
“Someday,” she said, “we will all have our own phone numbers and everyone will have their own telephone. We’ll all get a phone number and we’ll have it our whole lives and people will be able to call us anytime, anywhere.”
Changes, good or bad — they are inevitable.
All the recent discussions about The Enterprise’s new eEdition generated a lovely e-mail from an older reader about the nature of change and how we must celebrate rather than resist it.
She wrote to share what she does and doesn’t like about some of our recent changes, but also offered this interesting tidbit:
“In 1953 I was a senior in the journalism school at the University of Missouri. There was a class — Future of Newspapers — we all had to take.
“Although there was TV in those days, there were no personal computers. The speaker told us that in the future there would be no such thing as newspaper delivery to the home, nor would you buy a newspaper at a rack or store.
“You would turn on your TV and the entire newspaper would appear on your TV screen and if you desired it, a printout would roll out beneath the screen.”
That’s not quite the reality of today’s newspapers, but it’s a pretty good estimation considering it came more than a half century ago.
More than one person has asked me if the eEdition means the end of the printed newspaper. No, at least not now.
Will it someday mean we don’t print a newspaper? Probably. Just as it probably will mean that we don’t print other books — even textbooks. With electronic downloads and a variety of devices available to store and display that information, one day it simply will no longer be practical.
It will be just another change that is inevitable.
When I came to The Enterprise almost 30 years ago, reporters still typed on typewriters (albeit electric ones) with carbon paper. Shortly thereafter, we began converting to computers, but it wasn’t a personal computer system like we use now.
It was a mainframe system with all the computer monitors linked to a room on another floor filled with big machines that were the “brains” behind all our work.
The newsroom was equipped with bells and red lights that were supposed to warn us when the computer system was going down, but the reality was, they generally sounded and flashed about 30 seconds after all the computers locked up. Those days were filled with a lot of frustration — and almost-finished stories lost in the chaos that had to be written again.
In the 1920s Enterprise building, the third floor where the newsroom now is housed actually once held linotype machines. Those were the days of hot type — melted lead used to form the letters that would eventually become the newspaper. A skylight in the newsroom — with windows that used to open to let the heat escape, is a reminder of those times.
Next week, The Enterprise continues to change, not a great deal, but slightly. Next Monday’s page 2A will feature a new “Driver’s Seat” column sharing information about road construction and potential traffic problems. That Friday, we’ll return with an updated version of the popular “Asked and Answered” column, so get your questions ready. In between there will be some other modifications we think will improve our product.
We hope you like the changes. There will be more, because that’s what we, not just newspaper people, but human beings do — change, grow and thrive.
In responding to the kind reader who shared her story about the 1953 version of the “Future of Newspapers,” I shared my own story of a similar experience.
Years ago, probably in the early 1980s, a speaker at a professional conference was billed as a “futurist” — someone whose role was to follow trends and predict what might be the next big thing.
She made what at the time seemed an incredible prediction.
“Someday,” she said, “we will all have our own phone numbers and everyone will have their own telephone. We’ll all get a phone number and we’ll have it our whole lives and people will be able to call us anytime, anywhere.”
Changes, good or bad — they are inevitable.
posted by Sheila Friedeck at 5:22 PM
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