European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 12, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Continued from Page 15 Seely Brown vice president of the Palo Alto Calif research Center for Xerox. The traditional newspaper he says has Long been instrumental in Quot creating a background reference plane Quot providing the social glue that Quot brings individual minds together to radically enhance our ability to . If everyone is seeing different stories and advertisements people often will wind up talking about different subjects and. Having different priorities and that commonality and sense of Community will diminish greatly a a special danger in our increasingly multicultural society where fragmentation is already a major concern. A a a. Several futurists and experts in communications technology said they done to know How a personalized. Newspaper could include the stories Many people read every Day that have nothing to do with what they Are normally interested in stones that just happen to catch the Reader s Eye. The same is True of advertisements. You must read a newspaper for what you did no to know that you did no to know Quot says David Lockton president of interactive network in California s Silicon Valley. Because readers learn How to scan their regular. Newspaper to find what they want they develop a peripheral awareness and at least superficial knowledge of some issues and events without actually Reading much about them it is easy to be mesmerized by the potential of a technology but computers a Ideal when you want to c search for a specific piece of information a Are not terribly effective for scanning or browsing. Scanning and browsing May become luxuries that Many people feel they no longer have the time to indulge in though. Besides newspaper publishing today is an anachronistic ally expensive inefficient business a and a Long term threat to the  spend an enormous amount of Money to gather an enormous amount of information Only a Small percentage of that information actually is published a most of it virtually identical for each of the readers regardless of their varying interests. The information is used Only once a printed in tens of thousands of copies trucked to individual locations read and thrown away. The next Day the entire process begins anew a and More Trees Are killed to produce More papers. A to Many techno phobic americans a computer vision of the newspaper of the future sounds More like the newspaper from hell. But the rapid spread of Home computers calculators Nintendo games fax machines cellular telephones and Vars shows that there is a substantial and growing Market for new technologies. Although the electronic newspaper of the future sounds dizzying by complicated and forbidding by expensive scientists say that most of the fundamental technology exists and scores of experiments with various elements Are under Way. A major problem for the newspaper of the future is figuring out How to assemble the technology in a Low Cost package that will invite rather than intimidate a potential users. Scientists and Media executives agree that if the. Newspaper of the future is not As accessible As the newspaper of the present it will fail faster than you can say  a  will have to be Quot As much fun As Nintendo and As exciting As mtg Quot says Jerry Bennington president of a press information services or As Marc Porat puts it most people wont tolerate anything much More Complex than what they do now to get the morning paper Quot i open the front door. I Bend Over. I pick up the newspaper and i take the rubber band  a. A a a a a a a a a a a a a Quot. A. Your daily newspaper continued from Page 15 direct mail and telemarketing opportunities a have been Drifting away from newspapers in alarming numbers. Retail advertising which has Long provided More than 50 percent of newspaper advertising Revenue suffered its largest drop last year since the current form of record keeping began in 1949. A. Classified advertising a a which provides about 35 percent of total newspaper advertising Revenue nationwide is dropping even faster at Many papers Down almost 30 percent in the first Quarter of 1991 at the los Angeles times for example. Many experts say it is Only a matter of time before classified advertising is taken Over by some computerized service that can target specific audiences and products More efficiently than a newspaper. That a Why several newspapers now provide classified ads by computer themselves. In april Usa today and Prodigy services announced a joint venture for a National computerized classified advertising service. For similar reasons several newspapers provide a entertainment listings and sports weather and Stock Market reports by Telephone. ,. By the time most readers get the Stock tables in their morning newspaper the information is a Day old. If a newspapers done to provide quicker Access to that information someone else will. A Quot in 10 or 20 years you re not going to find. Six or eight pages of Stock tables necessarily in the newspaper Quot says Walter Baer Deputy vice president at the Rand corp. T a a. The Atlanta papers already have eliminated two. Financial tables a Stock options and commodity futures a and now Send that information by fax without charge to anyone who requests it. A Many in the Industry seem to agree with Andrew Barnes editor of the St. Petersburg times who says Quot my instinct is that if you can provide information in a direct and timely fashion for people of a wide variety so that they can get what they need its Likely to go on being a going  a readers action line cola limited to five family members no one seems to. Be Able to Tell me Why Cost of living allowance cola is Only available for me and four of my children. Are we supposed to take Only those four shopping on the Economy and leave the other three at Home Patricia a. Jones Hahn a Germany Date master sgt. George Varga systems analyst Deputy chief of staff comptroller he Safe replies we appreciate the Opportunity to respond to your question concerning cola. Questions Are frequently asked on the mechanisms of How this allowance is paid. Cola is Only paid to service members stationed in High Cost areas overseas to compensate for the added Cost of goods and services when compared to costs for similar items stateside. This allowance provides a balance in purchasing Power so members can enjoy about the same Standard of living overseas As in the United states. The monetary amount paid for cola is based upon the number of command sponsored dependents up to a maximum of five. Congress established the limitation of five dependents based on the average spendable. Income for different family sizes and income Levels. If you have questions concerning the above please Contact me at ets 480-6710. A a a to write us a a readers action line is the readers Quot court of last resort Quot striving to  of the questions a. About life overseas in a military environment or questions about policies and guidelines when other avenues for answers Are not readily available. If you have a question and Don t know where to turn for the answer write to readers action line co the stars and stripes Apo 09211-4211. All letters must be signed and preference will be Given to those seeking information of general interest to our readers. Page 16 a the stars and stripes wednesday june 12, 1991