TV CAMERAS GO ON IN OUR NEWSROOM

As the 20th century plays out, scientific achievement will rankatthe top of the list of accomplishments these past 100 years.

Nowhere is this more evident than in communications. In my scanttwo-score-and-six-years' observation, the newspaper industry hasembraced electronics like a kid in a candy store.

In 1973, when I returned to The Columbian, the old hot-metallinotypes were a fresh memory. We used typewriters and TheAssociated Press wire feed at 66 words per minute.Now there are just three newsroom typewriters, none of them usedto produce the newspaper. Our newsroom is filled with computers thatdownload and upload stories, assemble them into completed pageselectronically, prepare them for publication on the Internet andarchive them for later reference. A satellite dish on the roofbrings AP stories to us at the rate of about 9,600 words per minute.Our photography has advanced from cameras that use film to digitalcameras with no film that can, when coupled with a laptop computer,zap pictures to our newsroom from a cell phone connection.We have broadened our outlook in the process. We no longer thinkof ourselves as publishing newspaper exclusively, but rather asdistributing information by a variety of means. We have audiotextservice (Info-Line) that is available by telephone and an onlineservice (www.columbian.com) for access through computers.Last week we hooked up with KATU-TV, Channel 2. For the first timein the 109-year history of the newspaper, a portion of a televisionnews program originates from The Columbian's newsroom.The Portland television station set up a camera in the newsroom,installed a small control panel, put its own transmitter on our roofand began broadcasting last Thursday.Gary Walker, Channel 2's news director, summed it up this way:"Clark County coverage has been a key focus for Channel 2 news, andthe new partnership with The Columbian is an important step in ourcontinuing commitment to that coverage."Dan Tilkin, who has been with the station a little more than ayear, is the reporter for KATU's Clark County bureau. Taping andbroadcasting will occur in the newsroom daily and more often onbreaking news stories. Nielsen, the audience rating service for thebroadcast industry, pegs the station at No. 1 in the evening 6:30and11 news program slots for the Portland area.The power of two?It is possible we will collaborate with KATU in coverage of majorbreaking news in the future. Remember those helicopters.For now, television viewers will get a glimpse of our hyperactivenewsroom.Advances have not been limited to the technology. We've come along way in our thinking about the mix of media.During the late 1950s and '60s, the newspaper industry was tryingto figure out how to cope with this new "picture" competitor.Writers to the newspaper trade magazine Editor & Publisher,suggestedalways writing "tv" in lower case. Perhaps if we downplayed it,television would assume a lesser role, or simply just go away.It took more than a decade for newspapers to realize the earlycliche that television is "as local as your living room" and coveritas a news story.Proving we're anything but communication slow pokes, we went twosteps further. We actually printed television program schedules andbegan to review the small screen programs as an art form.In the 1980s, The Columbian tinkered with the notion of producingits own television news. We even produced a prototype televisionnewscast. The tape is still on a shelf around here. Once in awhilewe play it, just to prove it was a wise decision for us to remain asinformation distributors and leave television broadcasting to thosewho know what they're doing.Those people have now joined us in the newsroom. Clark Countyshould be better for the effort.