What was your first job in the newspaper business?

A news photographer.

What do you like most about your job?

Discovering new and better ways to get work accomplished (improving processes) and helping people develop and grow their skills.

What do you like least?

People’s reluctance to change and not wanting to challenge their beliefs.

What was your newspaper’s most recent purchase/installation?

The last large capital acquisition was our Digital Technology International front-end system for news and advertising. This is still a work in progress. The product, when completed, should improve our workflow.

What is the biggest challenge your newspaper is facing in production?

Our challenge is not unique — we have aging technology (equipment) and are losing our experienced employees to retirement. Meeting advertisers’ and readers’ needs becomes more challenging with each passing year.

We have been investigating and researching new equipment for several years with the goal of upgrading when appropriate. We have started a very aggressive skill-training program to quickly help new employees grow proficient and polish our experienced operators’ skills.

What trend are you keeping your eye on?

All of them. The biggest “bang for the buck” (productivity) should be in making the entire supply chain more efficient, from gathering the information to getting the product on the doorstep.

Our front-end system is part of this as well as the computer-to-plate system we will be installing this year. Everything has to work together to eliminate the bottlenecks and reduce the inherent waste(s) in the process.