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“Was it as good for you as it was for me?” I asked the exceedingly irritated but stoic Tribune techie on the other end of the phone. And for the first time in four grueling hours of trying to get my computer to “talk” to his, he laughed and said, “As a matter of fact, it was.”
The year was 1980-ish and I had finally convinced Chuck Hayes, the then-real estate editor of the Tribune, to allow my PR firm to send news releases electronically to the Tribune. He was understandably skeptical.
“Are you sure you can’t break into our system?”
“Chuck, I barely know how to turn this thing on let alone break into the Chicago Tribune’s computer system,” I assured him. “All I know is that if you receive our releases electronically, you won’t have to have someone retype them to edit them and it will save you a lot of time and money.” And, God bless him, he agreed, even though he made me swear I wouldn’t tell the other agencies (was he crazy?) or use it to my advantage in getting new business (smart man!). This exclusive arrangement lasted only a few months before we had worked out the kinks and he started allowing other agencies the same privilege.
For me, this was the beginning of a new era of communication. I owned three Apple IIe’s, which put my small company miles ahead of some of our competition who still used white-out and carbon paper with their IBM Selectrics.
Then, fast on the heels of our computers came our fax machine. Again, very few small businesses owned fax machines, but those who did were smug about sending a one-page letter in only 6 or 9 minutes! ( I never understood why anyone would choose the 9-minute setting.) That meant we could save postage, which was a whopping 18 cents, and fax a 3-page release to our client for approval in under 20 minutes. Wow.
I distinctly remember sitting in a meeting with Roger Mankedick, who turned to me and asked, “So, Deborah, do you think this Internet thing will last?” I paused, carefully considered his question, and replied, “Roger, I don’t know if we’ll ever sell homes with it, but I do know that if you haven’t started building your own Web site, you’d better get started.” Of course he had, and a few months later Lexington Homes, now Concord Homes, launched its site, which remains one of the most impressive builder Web sites, today.
In my business of mass communication, technology rules. It’s made our job quicker, easier and much more interesting. Thanks to technology, it took me less than a minute to research what stamps cost in 1981 for this article. Thanks to technology, Lisa Henning could request article submissions for this issue from all of her ____ members. And, thanks to technology, I can send or receive a picture of my grandchildren over my tiny cell phone from anywhere in the world.
Yes, I’d say there have been a few changes in my industry since I joined HBAGC in 1977. And, personally, I can’t wait for what’s next.
