[comp.text.desktop] Newspaper layout systems

dyer@uunet.UU.NET (11/23/87)

I am interested in finding out about software systems for PCs (either
Macs or IBM clones) which can be used for newspaper production and layout.
Right now, this small non-profit weekly paper has several IBM PCs which are
used by writers, and their copy can be sent via a serial line to a Compugraphic
Editwriter for final production.  Layout and paste up is performed by hand.

The Editwriter is already several years old; it will eventually be
impossible to maintain, and we're investigating systems for the future
which will help automate the entire process from text entry to final layout.
Right now, I have no idea what is out there, or whether a typesetter is
still preferable to a laser printer, given the resolution of newsprint.

Most of the PC-based desktop publishing systems such as Pagemaker and
Ventura Publisher seem more oriented towards newsletters, flyers and
magazine articles than newspapers, although I have little direct experience
with them and would love to be proved incorrect.

Can anyone give any specific recommendations for hardware and software
systems which might prove useful, and their costs?
-- 
Steve Dyer
dyer@harvard.harvard.edu
dyer@spdcc.COM aka {ihnp4,harvard,linus,ima,bbn,m2c}!spdcc!dyer
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Chuq "Fixed in 4.0" Von Rospach			chuq@sun.COM	Delphi: CHUQ

zrm@eddie.mit.edu (Zigurd R. Mednieks) (11/24/87)

>I am interested in finding out about software systems for PCs (either
>Macs or IBM clones) which can be used for newspaper production and layout.
...
>impossible to maintain, and we're investigating systems for the future
>which will help automate the entire process from text entry to final layout.
...
>Most of the PC-based desktop publishing systems such as Pagemaker and
>Ventura Publisher seem more oriented towards newsletters, flyers and

There is an Apple VAR in Hull, Mass. that sells systems geared toward
producing newspapers on Macintoshes and laser printers. The Hull
Newsweekly is their test bed and it looks very nice for a community
tab. They are newspaper savvy and are in tune with real world
constraints, e.g. they do not try to do it without paste-up.

The company is called Community Publications Network and they can be
reached at:

	CPN, Inc.
	816 Nantasket Ave.
	Hull, MA 02045
	(617) 925-4017

Ask for Rod Young or Susan Ovans.

Disclaimer: CPN, Inc. has been a client of MURSU Corporation, of which
I am a principal. MURSU, however, has no formal vested interest in CPN's
sales of Apple equipment or their value-added products.

-Zigurd
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Chuq "Fixed in 4.0" Von Rospach			chuq@sun.COM	Delphi: CHUQ