Desktop Technology for Newspapers: Use of the Computer Tool.

This work considers desktop publishing technology as a way used to paginate newspapers electronically, tracing the technology's development from the beginning of desktop publishing in the mid-1980s to the 1990s. The work emphasizes how desktop publishing technology is and can be used by weekly newspapers. It reports on a Pennsylvania weekly newspaper study's finding on the level of use of desktop publishing and related technologies, noting significant use of basic desktop computer systems and additional desktop publishing-related technologies. Further, that study found use of such technology increases as the number of pages published increases and as the population density of the area in which the paper is published increases. Also reported are interviews with several Pennsylvania weekly newspaper journalists, who discuss how their organizations have used desktop publishing technology and interviews with industry experts on how weekly newspapers can use desktop publishing technology as it existed in spring 1995. The experts outline a basic desktop publishing system that can be started for less than $9,000, plus the cost of a computer. Finally, the work considers the development of new computer-related technologies that can permit newspapers, weeklies, and dailies to publish in alternative forms, such as online publication, fax news systems, and bulletin board systems. Many of these systems have been developed at universities--for example, Stanford has an interactive Media Link campus news service, and the University of Missouri has tested an electronic newspaper. Appendixes contain the study questionnaire, tables and tests, a rationale for selection of statistical test, uses of technology, and a 335-item selected bibliography. (TB)