Mac turns 30: How publishing has changed in a generation

The technology for journalism and publishing has changed rapidly in my generation — from manual typewriters to iPhones.

Shortly before the Mac was introduced in 1984, I worked at Time magazine on the West Coast, and we typed stories on IBM “Selectric” or manual typewriters and sent them to New York via “Telex.” An operator typed the stories, or “files,” into the Telex machine. It was all paper.

When I worked for South Florida newspapers and the San Francisco Chronicle in the ’80s, we used “dumb” terminals, such as Coyote, that were connected to Tandem mainframe computers. There was no World Wide Web or email addresses for us. Herb Caen typed his columns on a reliable Royal manual typewriter. Our newspapers were designed on paste-up boards, where the stories and headlines were pasted with wax in the “back shop.” It was an art to keep the copy straight.

We filed stories remotely with Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 portable computers, featuring a keyboard and liquid crystal display, battery powered. Acoustic couplers fit over a standard telephone handset to transmit the stories. Once I carried a TRS-80 (we nicknamed them “Trash 80s”) all the way to London for an interview with Virgin Atlantic’s Richard Branson that I sent back to S.F. It was a cumbersome process.

While I worked at the South Florida newspapers, I also filed stories about Eastern Airlines to The New York Times. Even then, I dictated them into a telephone. Somebody on the other end transcribed them into print — totally archaic.

At CNET in the mid-’90s, we used PCs, email and a self-publishing system to file stories in “real time,” which proved revolutionary. Laptops were ideal tools for filing remotely. At the same time, most newspapers were using digital systems to design the newspaper.

Now our Sierra FoodWineArt magazine is shot with digital cameras, including some iPhone shots, and it is designed on a Mac. The stories are written on a Mac and sent to the printer via a digital network. Our bookkeeping is handled on a Mac and PC. (Microsoft “Office” is still the best software for small businesses, and weaker when running on a Mac).

We just launched a new mobile website, designed to read our magazine and all sorts of travel-related content on an iPhone. It is a “go to” guide for travelers to our region.

WATCH A VIDEO SHOT ENTIRELY WITH AN IPHONE

This year Apple celebrates the 30th-anniversary of the Mac. “On January 24, 1984, Apple introduced the Macintosh. And with it a promise that the power of technology, put in the hands of everyone, could change the world. On January 24, 2014, we sent 15 camera crews all over the world to show how that promise has become a reality,” Apple said.

“From sunrise in Melbourne to nightfall in Los Angeles, they documented people doing amazing things with Apple products. They shot over 70 hours of footage — all with the iPhone 5s. Then it was edited and scored with an original soundtrack. Thanks to the power of the Mac and the innovations it has inspired, an effort that normally takes months was accomplished in a matter of days.”