INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

An amazing diversity of technology is required to support The Seattle Times Company's newspaper and online operations. More than 120 people support, develop and maintain computer systems that run on platforms that include Windows NT and 2000, Unix, IBM OS/390, Novell, and Macintosh. These positions are decentralized by division (news, advertising, circulation, operations, marketing, new media, finance and employee resources) with roles for centralized development activities and support of our corporate infrastructure and communications.

The past few years have brought rapid technological change and growth to The Seattle Times Company. Following closely on Y2K, we underwent a significant business change by converting The Seattle Times to a morning newspaper. The Seattle Times had been an afternoon newspaper since its inception in 1896. A business change of this scale required that all of our systems be reviewed and revised to support the change. In addition, two major systems were recently implemented - Enterprise, for classified advertisements, and CCI, for news content and layout. Both of these systems enhance our ability to respond quickly to changing customer needs in two key areas of our business.

Looking to the future, we are developing strategies and plans to bring additional e-commerce applications and sophisticated data marketing to our customers. We continue to invest in our underlying infrastructure by increasing network bandwidth, expanding systems capacity and improving security to allow future voice and/or video applications to be integrated into our main systems. These steps will improve our ability to coordinate internally as well as make it easier for customers to communicate and conduct business with us.

Technology has never played a bigger role than right now in transforming how newspaper companies communicate vital information to the public. The Seattle Times Company Information Technology department will continue to closely monitor emerging needs and opportunities to ensure the best possible service to our customers and our community as we move into the new millennium.