By Barry Schaeffer

Reprinted from Newspapers and Technology Magazine

Copyright, Barry Schaeffer, June 4, 1999. All rights reserved.

It has been no secret for some time that the newspaper industry is in the content business, not the paper business. It's just that no one outside the trade associations and a few pioneering newspapers seemed to notice. That certain Silicon Valley latecomers noticed and acted on the knowledge has been mentioned here previously and is still a story worth following.

Newspapers, for the most part, have gone merrily along worrying about their profits but ignoring the changes taking place in the core product that provides their raison d'être, news about important events taking place locally, nationally and worldwide. When the Internet roared on the scene, most newspapers made a few grudging gestures toward the new medium, most of them marginal to awful, then returned to paper concerns. It wasn't until the new electronic medium started cutting into their circulation and profits that most even thought much about their place in the evolving world of multiple media channels for almost everything. For example, there has been an SGML version of the basic news story around since the early 90's. The News Industry Text Format, or NITF, never got much notice among newspapers and even less among the layout system community. Newspapers thus ignored a valuable signal that, sooner or later, things would change for them. That day, if not already here, may be coming and soon.

Since late last year, the American Press Institute's Media Center along with several news services, has been hard at work on the News Markup Language. This derivative of the existing SGML story model is developed in XML, the new markup standard driving the World Wide Web and much of the information delivery world. Unremarkable in its form; it's a set of 40 or so tags describing things one might want to know about news content, NML is of signal importance for what it makes possible in a world of electronic information delivery. Because XML can be delivered directly to end users via Internet browsers, NML completes the unbroken content chain between initial provider and consumer. Because XML can be both visually rendered and logically manipulated in the browser itself, the need for an intermediary (such as a newspaper) becomes all but non-existent. Because news content in a common, easily handled form significantly reduces the complexity and cost of delivery, newspapers' economic barrier to competition is further eroded.

It might be argued with some justification that standards are fine but have little impact unless adopted and used by major players. After all, the News Industry Text Format or NITF, as NML's SGML predecessor is known, made little change in how news was gathered and delivered. This is precisely why NML is important. Not only do its XML roots make it a potentially a tool of the Internet, XML's compatibility with SGML allows it to leverage the work already done on the NITF. This stepped up level of interest is mirrored by the reaction of the news delivery industry; WAVO (formerly Wavephore) has announced a news feed service delivered exclusively in the NML, AP is developing products in NITF and several international services have fielded NITF products. Just as the Internet became a force to be reckoned with when major players committed their fortunes and reputations to it, so NML is important because it has arrived with the checkbooks of major news aggregation and delivery companies.

First, newspapers must not ignore this new movement. If any Web-based organization can receive and render a news feed directly from the wire services, they will receive a windfall of lower costs in their campaign to become the newspapers of tomorrow. If news stories can be searched and categorized by simple, easily configured software, the customized electronic newspaper moves a step closer to reality, without the need for a newspaper staff to do the categorization. If a major portion of news content begins to flow in a standard format, newspaper editorial systems based on word processors and closed formats will become growing drags on productivity and content value. Newspapers must begin the painful process of assessing these changes in their world while there is still time to react effectively. Theoretical discussions of merging the paper and online editorial staffs must be brought down to reality and, where appropriate, action must be taken; the farcical argument, about online editions "scooping" the paper edition, must be stopped so that news staffs can start acting like news staffs instead of warring cliques; and newspapers must find a way to participate in a "dis-aggregated" world where their exclusive franchise to readers' attention is diluted.

Second, newspapers must get themselves involved in the development of the new standards. It has long been known that he who controls the standard controls the process. Microsoft has made a business out of driving the development of standards in directions that benefit their interests. Newspapers must adopt some of the same strategy; they will live and die by the formats adopted by major participants in the news gathering and delivery world. While the involvement of API and NAA is valuable, newspapers must take a more active role themselves in the standardization process.

Third, newspapers must have a long talk with their layout system suppliers. NML makes the closed system a functional albatross that newspapers can no longer afford. Left to their own designs, the major layout system vendors are likely to provide only a way of translating NML into their proprietary formats, offering their clients a tool to turn open, easily sharable and deliverable news into a closed, single-purpose commodity. This is hardly a fair bargain for newspapers but it will fit within the vendors' need to preserve their investment in proprietary technology.

NML doesn't signal the eleventh hour for newspapers, but it is another signpost on the way to a largely electronic world for news, ads and other services formerly owned by the paper medium. The time is right for the industry to react intelligently and aggressively to become part of this developing world. However, given the speed of developments surrounding the Internet, that time may be fleeting and the penalty for inaction severe.