European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 12, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Slowly but surely on the Road to Chang your daily newspaper by David shawls Angeles times. I n Denver the Rocky Mountain. News gives subscribers the computer software necessary to receive a free of charge a a. Separate Quot a la carte Quot edition of the daily paper updated frequently and available 24 hours a Day by computer Telephone  fort Worth Texas the Star Telegram a offers stories from the daily paper and. From National news1 services for $9.95 a month on Sta text a computer service. That enables users to get an Early look at. The next Days classified ads As Well As make travel reservations Exchange messages and Access a Quot reference room Quot that includes Book and movie v. Reviews and gardening tips. / a. A in Atlanta the. Journal and Constitution have 250 special Telephone lines for readers who want sports scores news updates restaurant reviews movie a a schedules soap opera updates and Stock weather and traffic reports. ,. Newspapers threatened by increased Competition and decreased profits and readership Are searching for new ways to attract and retain readers and advertisers As the print Media move however timorous by into the increasingly electronic decades of the information age. Newspapers Are trying to figure out How they can reuse information they gather every Day at great expense and now use Only once they want to take advantage of new communications technologies. They want to become. More useful and More interesting to a generation accustomed to the a accessibility and excitement of. Television computers and video games. A a above All newspapers want to reverse a decline that finds Only 52 percent of. The american Public Reading a. Newspaper every Day. X. A a Many experts in communications technology envision a personalized electronic newspaper available by some combination of computer .  in the. Next Century but in the meantime some newspapers Are. Experimenting with a variety of. Intermediate technologies. Quot i cannot imagine a time in the future when there will not be newspapers in the Home Quot says John b. Evans executive vice president at Rupert Murdoch s news corp. Quot a newspaper is a data base. It happens to be on crushed Trees right now. I done to think a newspaper proprietor. Should care How it is delivered As Long As it s his information. More than a dozen newspapers have tried sending Small editions to selected subscribers by fax and others Are experimenting with various versions of videotex a newspapers by computer. If newspapers insist on remaining exclusively in the traditional Quot newspaper business Quot As opposed to the Quot information business Quot or the Quot communications business Quot experts. Say they will suffer the same Fate As the Coal and Railroad industries which considered themselves in the Coal and a Railroad businesses rather than the Energy and transportation businesses. No television did no to kill radio but it clearly diminished its Impact. Air planes put Many steamship and Railroad a companies out of business print a newspapers May remain alive in an Era. Of electronic communication but they. Too could become quaint relics of. Another time. Quot there is increasing awareness in the. Industry that Well need to do new things if we Are to Prosper in the future As we have in the past Quot says Jay Harris vice president for operations at Knight Ridder newspapers.  while one of the newspaper primary functions has always been to chronicle change newspapers a themselves have been largely resistant. To it. High profit margins and monopolies or near monopolies have enabled the. Industry to neglect experimentation. Research and development. _ newspapers were slow to. Computerize slow to shift from drab Black and White to sprately redesigns  and slow to. Recognize both the Opportunity and the threat of new communications. A. Technologies. Newspapers must undergo a. Quot paradigm shift Quot says John Altson speaking As someone who has Long worked on new newspaper technologies rather than As an executive for his current employer ism Altson  instead of insisting that everything will be Fine if Only they can raise advertising rates a Little Cut costs a Little and redesign the paper a Little newspaper must begin Quot looking at the customers an understanding their  editors worry that such suggestions Are really code words for Quot dumping Down Quot. Their papers for providing color photos flashy graphics and Short stories rather. Than comprehensive news and insightful commentary. But technology experts say there will be a Market for the traditional. Content in the future regardless of  is assembled and delivered and even if its audience shrinks. A a a a newspapers wire services  networks Are unlikely to be replaced As the primary news gathering agencies in America what will change will be the Means of delivering that news and How that news is integrated into the. Broad information mix of the future. The news organizations that survive a and thrive a will be those that adapt Best to the new technologies. The a a new technology used by the most newspapers so far is the Telephone. More than 300 newspapers have "900&Quot Telephone numbers that require users to pay a fee part of which goes to the paper to get recorded information. About 50 other newspapers offer such. Telephone services free to users but sell time on the Telephone announcements to advertisers. The los Angeles times has 900 numbers for Stock Market reports crossword Puzzle clues and an astrology column. The paper is considering adding 900 numbers for weather reports restaurant reviews soap opera updates sports scores and recipes As Welt As travel entertainment and real estate  newspapers already have such900 services and the Baltimore Sun. Operates a Job resume service by Telephone a Reader sees a help wanted and dials a number listed there and by responding to various questions leaves a resume that the employer can retrieve. And respond to also by Telephone. The Atlanta journal and Constitution probably have the widest Range of Audi Tex services and the most widely. Used system the papers receive 35,000 to 40,000 Calls a Day on special. Telephone lines virtually All free local. Calls except for Quot personal Quot ads on a 900 line a a a. ,.a a a a a a about half the Atlanta Audi Tex services include paid messages from advertisers. But Chris Jennewein. General manager of the papers voice information services subsidiary says he has found that including an and on a. Recorded message with a baseball. Score Stock report or some other. Specific piece of information is Quot not All that attractive to an  a Jennewein says the Atlanta papers have Quot stopped looking at the information hot lines As Revenue generating entities and focused instead on their value in enhancing   ,. Audi Tex enables newspapers to reclaim some territory they Long ago ceded to radio  a including up to the minute election results and sports scores. Quot its important to be. Able to give out the score of a braves game on the West coast  your paper s not ,. Going to have it because. Deadlines Are too Early Quot Jennewein says. The Atlanta papers also have a Largety Wall  what Ine of v i  v i of mob a a sol  i a w r a t a a i a a i i a a a a. I l -.r. Page 14 athe stars and stripes wedness