Mr. Roy A. Baril

"Electronic pagination changed the way the paper was physically put up," said Roy Baril, director of information systems at the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.Baril was in charge of setting up pagination systems at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., and the Post-Tribune in Gary, Ind.

Baril said technology has forced editorial and production departments, traditionally far more separate, to work together."It is no longer 'We do this, he does that or they are doing that,' " he said.

The Californian in Salinas, which converted to fully integrated, QuarkXPress-based pagination for front-end editorial and page design terminals in 1998, still has growing pains.

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Baril said today's technology changes 10 times faster.By the time a paper finishes installing a new system, what was brand-new technology will have become an old one, he said.Baril advised editors to "make sure that the system will have legs on it and that it will have some longevity.Choose hardware that is upgradable for at least few years."

The competition between newspaper publishing and the new technology continues.It seems to go beyond pagination and even the Internet.