Chapter One – From strength to vulnerability

Chapter 23: Fourth Wave

While the whole saga of the Metro edition was unfolding, and for some time before, Argus had been addressing the complicated question of a further modernisation of its production systems, specifically of its electronic editing systems, but later to be followed by a similar upgrading of its advertising capture and publishing systems.

The change was from editing on computer systems, which had been introduced in the late 1970s and early 1980s, to doing the whole process on computer up to the start of the printing presses – including full pagination of the text and pictures. This was an exciting, but daunting, prospect.
Featherstone had called a conference of senior executives from around the country and from all affected departments to consider what route to follow. The company’s technical experts had been sent overseas to study what was available, and there was a feeling of urgency in deliberations, caused by the fact that existing electronic editing systems were already beginning to fail. And were running out of spare parts to keep them going. In computer terms they were virtually obsolete.
The difficulty with the project was that, internationally, we were dealing with brand-new technology that was still in the process of development and refinement. There was no developed and perfect system available. Everything available was insufficiently tested, and certainly not tuned to our particular needs. Some brave newspapers in Britain, America and the Continent had bought initial versions, and some even spoke proudly of them as successes. Argus made something of a nuisance of itself by repeatedly sending teams of people to these newspapers to see for themselves, straining hospitality in some cases to the limit.
When the research had been done to the extent possible, a report-back was made to the executives’ conference at Mount Grace, a conference venue in the Magaliesberg. After some ragged debate, it was decided that the systems were so expensive – estimates of R60-million were thrown about – that a guinea-pig operation would have to be attempted. If the guinea-pig operation turned out a success, then the system would be expanded steadily around the group.
The guinea-pig chosen for the project was the Pretoria News, a small-circulation afternoon paper with high pagination, operating on a small staff. It was considered better to hold the experiment there than in the more complicated environments of the four-newspaper (soon to be five) stable at Natal Newspapers or the three-newspaper stable at The Star.
The Pretoria News, edited by Deon du Plessis, snapped up the chance, an exciting challenge to be involved in. Interestingly, the Pretoria News had been the last of the Argus papers to convert to electronic editing in the early 1980s,having to wait its turn behind the bigger papers. Now, a decade later, its role was reversed. It was to be the pioneer.
The recommended system was Mediasistemen, developed by a small Dutch firm that was hard-pressed to keep up with orders for its computer system. At the same time it was developing its system further. In spite of the pressure on this small firm, it seemed willing and able to tackle the Pretoria News job and to come and supervise its installation. Pretoria News staff were sent to Holland for several weeks to familiarise themselves fully with the system.
Even with these precautions, the Pretoria News had difficulties. At subsequent executives’ conferences, Deon du Plessis enthused about the system and its efficiencies compared with the old system, but had to admit that problems had been experienced, that installation had taken months longer than originally thought, and that costs had risen above expectations.
While Pretoria News was battling with the introduction of the Mediasistemen electronic editing system, other parts of the company battled on with their old systems, and got involved in considerations of improved newspaper design.
Argus had turned to the Poynter Institute in Florida, USA, for advice from their ace newspaper designer, Mario Garcia, who was then brought out to South Africa to make suggestions about the company’s papers.
The Daily News under Mostert van Schoor immediately embraced Garcia’s ideas and sent a senior sub-editor, John Waters, to Florida for intensive training so he could specialise in design. Waters learnt his design skills on the AppleMac computer system, and came back to Natal singing the praises of AppleMac.
This swung van Schoor and Booth behind the idea of looking further than Mediasistemen at other news systems that were developing, instead of taking our turn with Mediasistemen when the test period had been completed at Pretoria News. Van Schoor also visited London about that time and was impressed by what was going on at the Daily Mirror with AppleMac systems, apparently without serious problems.
My reaction to Garcia had been less enthusiastic than van Schoor’s, although the Mercury team that went to his demonstration liked several of his ideas. We did not want him to take over the Mercury and do a total re-design, but felt we would prefer to control changes ourselves and pick and choose what we wanted. In addition, I had been to Rotterdam to see a Mediasistemen system working on a newspaper there, with the staff being very happy with the product. I also visited the Daily Telegraph at London’s Canary Wharf, and found them very happy with an Atex system upgrade they had installed.
To me, the questions of design and the computer systems on which they were operated, were much more open questions than Booth and van Schoor saw them as.
But personal preferences of non-technical journalists and managing directors were hardly the way to decide the question of the most suitable electronic editing system.
The Star sent its team of technical experts abroad to check on new developments, but Natal Newspapers insisted on sending its own team. This caused a tense and emotional stand-off between two of the main divisions of the company, Natal Newspapers and The Star. They became rivals.
And at Natal Newspapers, there was also a build-up of tensions. In considering who to send on the investigating team, it was decided that two editorial representatives would go along with the technical experts to provide editorial input. Van Schoor proposed two people from his staff, whereas I argued that, as the system would affect morning and afternoon newspapers differently, and would be introduced on one paper before the other, one of the two editorial representatives should be from the Mercury, instead of both coming from the Daily News.
The stalemate was resolved by Booth deciding two representatives from the Daily News would go, and the Mercury would not be represented at all. I was angered by this, especially as it confirmed my overall experience at Natal Newspapers that the Daily News would be favoured wherever there was a clash.
Van Schoor expressed regret to me that a showdown had been necessary, and assured me there was nothing personal in the confrontation. I accepted that assurance readily enough, because I had no doubt it was true. He was doing the best he could for his staff, but it did not alter the fact that the Mercury had been spurned.
I indicated to Booth, to his fury, that, if the Mercury was to be excluded from input into the decision of which system to adopt, I did not feel any loyalty to any recommendation Natal Newspaper might make. I could even side with The Star against Natal Newspapers if I was not convinced Natal Newspapers had the best answer.
Booth took this as an act of disloyalty, a damning crime in his eyes. He was so proud of Natal Newspapers. But I saw his decision as a betrayal too and was extremely disappointed with it, especially as one of the two Daily News editorial representatives was already an AppleMac convert, was not a technical computer expert, and was not going on the investigating expedition with an open mind.
The problem grew into a full-scale company dispute when the Star’s and the Natal Newspapers’ investigating teams came back from their exploratory tours with opposing recommendations. The Star was happy with Mediasistemen. Natal Newspapers’ team said Mediasistemen was a half-baked Fourth Wave system (a three-and-a-half wave system) and recommended AppleMac instead.
The argument did not ever come down to a vote at an executives’ conference. Instead the matter was argued back and forth between the newspapers’ technical teams, with the Argus in Cape Town chipping in with its opinions. Further trips abroad took place. Eventually head office took the decision, seeing no consensus could be reached, and plumped for AppleMac.
At Natal Newspapers, Natal on Saturday (which used the Mercury’s old Atex system) was chosen as the first newspaper in Durban to switch to AppleMac, with the Mercury being trained to follow immediately.
After the tiff there had been about representation on the investigation team, this amounted to rubbing salt into the Mercury’s wounds by making its Atex system the first to be junked in favour of AppleMac, with Daily News staff in charge of the changes. My view, however, was that the decision had been taken and that it made sense for the morning paper to be first, because if anything went wrong while getting the system up and running, the technical crews at least had the night ahead to try to rectify any breakdowns, and they would still be able to get a paper out when it was needed.
By the time the system was introduced onto the Daily News, it had to be assured of working reliably, because there would be no time to fix breakdowns without losing a day’s edition on the streets.
In addition to this powerful argument, the practical situation at the Mercury also suggested the paper needed urgent relief from its failing Atex system. Both the Daily News and the Mercury were labouring under failing systems – the Mercury with Atex and the Daily News with CSI – and the company was having to cannibalise old computers to keep the dwindling number of working machines going. No extra spare parts were available from suppliers.
The Mercury’s Atex system had been the first introduced in South Africa in the 1970s, long before Argus’s conversion to computer editing. When Argus eventually decided to convert to computer editing, individual papers were allowed to choose their own system, resulting in The Star and the Daily News taking CSI while Argus and Pretoria News chose Atex. This had caused the group many headaches over the years, yet here we were heading for another split. The Pretoria News would be on Mediasistemen, and the rest of the group on AppleMac.
What strongly supported the case for the Mercury to be converted to AppleMac as soon as possible was that its Atex system actually failed completely one night, for so long that the technicians could give no assurance that the system would be up and running in time to bring out the night’s edition. I received an emergency call from Mercury chief sub Jon Knight telling me the system had broken down and we would not be able to produce a paper.
I immediately phoned Mossie van Schoor to ask him the favour that he call in his sub-editing staff to produce Mercury pages on the Daily News’s CSI system so we could get the paper on the streets. He did this without hesitation, and I was very grateful for the fine spirit and promptness with which he and his staff came to the Mercury’s rescue.
Three or four members of the Daily News sub-editing staff, who had worked all the previous day and were going back to work at the crack of dawn the next day, came immediately (although it was well past 9pm) – without the slightest delay – to help the Mercury through its crisis.
I stood their team to a couple of drinks after the crisis was all over, and later also sent them a small token monetary reward for their efforts – token perhaps, but in heartfelt appreciation. They, of course, also got overtime pay, which the Mercury paid very willingly.
After that dire experience, it was not surprising the Mercury was chosen with Natal on Saturday to get off the Atex system as quickly as possible onto the AppleMac fourth Wave system.
It was into this minefield of argument, mutual suspicion, and practical crisis that Tony O’Reilly’s Independent Newspapers group of Ireland walked on buying a controlling interest in Argus from JCI.