Mainframe versus PCs: it's a matter of time, cost

The Sacramento Bee uses its mainframe computer system with a VAX network hookup and large hard drive for computer-assisted reporting, allowing multiple staff members to access census data simultaneously and quickly identify trends like racial representation discrepancies that would be difficult to spot manually.

As the number of papers doing computer-assisted reporting increases, so does the number of people searching for a system that meets their newspaper's needs. Most papers use tape-drive systems, like 9-Track Express, to download tapes while some use their newspaper's mainframe. The Sacramento Bee is one of the latter. George Schlukbier, computer coordinator for editorial and library director at the Bee, uses the paper's mainframe to download information for their projects.

Using a VAX network hookup, Schlukbier downloads the whole tape into the 2.4 gigabyte hard drive attached to his Macintosh FX. The VAX network hookup allows his Mac to import records as quickly as the mainframe downloads them. Then he uses FoxBase Mac to extract information from the database now on his hard drive. The mainframe system helps keep the Bee competitive with the other papers in the area doing computer-assisted reporting, like the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and San Jose Mercury News, Schlukbier said.

When the Census released the Public Law data files earlier this year, the Bee was ready with a survey of minority representation on city and county governments, Schlukbier said. When the Bee got the tape, they checked representation with minority population figures from 1990 and 1980 and had a story out by deadline that showed serious discrepancies in population and representation. For example, one area in Los Angeles that was 92 percent black had no black representation on the city council, Schlukbier said.

Analysis also showed that Hispanics were better represented on city and county governments than blacks, said David Jensen, special projects editor at the Bee. "It's almost impossible to find trends or anomalies by looking at the Census' STF1 file printout," Jensen said. "Those things jump out at you when you use the computer." Schlukbier said he went with the mainframe system because it met his paper's needs which are: constant access to all the information in their 9-track tape library from any terminal in the paper; a system that allowed special projects reporters, graphic artists, and editors to access and use information from the same database without passing around hard copies or diskettes containing the information; compatibility with the art department's Macintoshes and their Illustrator and DeltaGraph software.

"I decided from day one not to go with 9-Track Express," Schlukbier said. "I wasn't convinced that loading and reloading 9-track tapes each time I needed different information was the way to go." Schlukbier said it takes 15 minutes to download a tape with variable length records and packed fields into FoxBase using the mainframe. He found tape drive hardware for the mainframe to be more reliable and user-friendly than those for standalone personal computer systems.

The keys to the newspaper's system are the mainframe and the 2.4 gigabyte hard drive, which allows Schlukbier to download a whole tape with no problem. But the cost of a hard drive alone with that capacity may be prohibitive for most newspapers. The one Schlukbier uses runs about $8,000. Schlukbier said the site license for the VAX network hookup cost $1,000 and $300 for each Mac in the network. The database program he uses, FoxBase, costs $400.

The editorial department has an agreement with the computing department that when a tape is acquired it can be loaded immediately. According to Schlukbier, a reporter doesn't come in with a hot tape needing to get some information off it immediately for a story. Acquiring a tape can, and usually is, a lengthy process, he said. Schlukbier works with a reporter when he downloads the tapes and conducts queries.

"There aren't hot tapes," Schlukbier said. "We do this for long-term special projects. If we need quick access to information we go online or to our own databases." Many newspapers do not have a mainframe that they can use to quickly download tapes. That's where standalone systems come in. Systems like 9-Track Express were created to make it easier for reporters to do their own computer analyses on something familiar to them - the newsroom PC, said Dan Woods, co-author of 9-Track Express.

"Many of the dinosaurs of the mainframe world have a siege mentality when the fact of the matter is that the future of reporting or any other analysis is on desktop," Woods said. "Analysis is an iterative process by which answers to certain questions lead to other questions," Woods said. "If the reporter is not involved in that process he's not really reporting."