A Grad Student Looks at StarText

StarText recently caught the attention of Robb Crocker, currently studying communications in a graduate program at Rutgers University. Robb has a blog, The Past, Present and Future of Newspaper Websites, where he posts interviews and viewpoints.

StarText was the topic for his most recent blog, linked here.

Robb challenged me with questions about both StarText and the current state of online media, including should newspapers start charging for their websites and what will the future bring. Nothing very weighty or important, thank goodness. Just issues some seriously smart people have been trying to figure out for a very long time.

It's always fun to speculate on what might be ahead, mostly because no one really knows (except maybe Paul Saffo, a futurist who when he talks, I always listen.)

At any rate, thanks Robb for your interest in StarText and good luck with your studies. Hopefully you'll be the one who comes up with the answers.

Former StarText Editor Checks In

Today's email brought this:

"Gerry

"I just stumbled upon your StarText history.

"As a long-impoverished, yet recent Baylor graduate, in 1988 I became a part-time editor at StarText while a student at Southwestern Seminary. I was always impressed with the possibilities the service provided and couldn't figure out why print media wasn't adopting the efficiencies of electronic production.

"I worked alone on the 5 pm to midnight shift inputting data. It was a pretty dry task, though I enjoyed scanning the news, writing headlines, and occasionally writing stories. In fact, I did live reporting during the San Francisco earthquake. [StarText News Editor] Christine Russell always was concerned about my 'dyslexia' when I input Wall Street download codes. Looking at 4598, for example, I would say 9845, but always input the number correctly.

Sometimes we didn't get the Star Telegram feeds, especially Rangers stories, and I'd have to walk over to the news editors -- who never really cared for the StarText side of things -- and remind them not to forget the electronic folks.

"The workday was over when David Letterman said goodnight, so I guess some things have not changed.

"And while I only vaguely remember you, thanks for the history."

Thom "Alan" Mackenzie


Alan --

I appreciate you taking the time to tell your StarText story. I would agree there was a little love/hate (or maybe more, like/dislike) relationship between the print and electronic sides of the house. Much the same as today, in many shops. But hey, we had to start somewhere and StarText just gave us a headstart on working out those issues.

By the way, Alan went on from his brief stint with StarText to, among other things, design and operate 11 computer centers for low income residents of Los Angeles. He returned to Texas, got a PhD in literature and now a college teacher. Congrats Alan, and thanks again for sharing.

Jude

Reader Note -- This is another in a continuing series of stories authored by StarText subscriber columnist Ed Jackson. My thanks to Dennis Brand for sending it along.

Copyright by e.j.

My name is Jude. Hey, look... Don't ask me why I'm betraying him. I don't know. I imagine HE knows. He knows everything. I dunno... I guess I just think the story is too good to keep. I'm sure it makes me out to be some kind of summich, but... well.. I reckon I am what I am. I haven't any idea whether he'll bother to track me down and nail me for telling or not. Considering the kind of guy he is, I don’t think so, but if he does, he'll have his work cut out for him. By the time you read this, I'll be half way around the world.

Funny, how it all started.. with me. The doctors had all given me up for terminal... the big C, you know. I went to see him, and he healed me. Being the kind of guy I am, I had to find out just who the hell he was, and, being the kind of guy I am. ... I found out. He was a brought-back-from-the-grave, arisen-from-the-dead savior of the world... but he was a robot. He was Rad Fourteen.

He had kept his identity secret, and set himself up as a healer, and was doing real well at it. I tried to shake him down, and I guess my nerve intrigued him, or something, because he didn't alter me. Instead, he talked me into becoming one of his staff. I served him well, too, for about six years. Then something happened in the healer business. Somehow or another the rumor got around that he was a robot, and the healing business just went to pot. Kind'a hard to figure... considering he wasn't charging any money. Folks just decided he wasn't the genuine article.

Funny thing about people. They are perfectly willing to believe that a MAN is a Son of God, or has been given the gift BY God. They can believe in a man, but they just can't put their trust or faith in a machine. With technology the way it is right now, I know I sure as hell trust ANY machine more than I trust ANY man, but most folks aren't like that. Nobody had any proof.... nobody but me, and I wasn’t talking... but the rumor was enough. It put him out of business, and all his staff were put on temporary leave. In my case, a bank account was opened for me, and I had all the money I needed. I don't need much, and I don't know how much was there for me. All I know is that it never ran out.. not even when I drew out the hundred grand to take with me when I ducked.

One night, a couple of weeks ago, I got this call from Rad. He asked me to come see him, and gave me an address. When I got there, Rad met me at the door.

"Hi, Jude. Come on in." We shook hands, and I went into his living room.

"Wipe your feet before you come into MY house!" a raucus voice snapped at me. I looked over to the open door on the right side of the room at this red headed woman who stood there belligerently, hands on hips.

"Yes'm," I said, and automatically did a soft shoe on the mat just inside the door.

"Jude," said Rad, "I'd like you to meet my wife. Rachel, this
is Jude.'

"Pleased to meetcha, ma'am," I said.

"Humph! Well, if you're gonna sit and gab, do it in the kitchen. I'm gonna watch the T.V." She glared, first at me, then at Rad.

"Yes dear," said Rad. "How about fixing us some coffee?" "You want coffee, YOU fix coffee. I'm your wife, not your.."

"Yes dear," said Rad. "Come on, Jude, we'll have some coffee in the kitchen, and talk."

As we walked by Mrs. Rad... er, Rachel.. I loaded up my peepers, out of the corners. I'm good at that. She was a tad taller than Rad, maybe thirty pounds heavier, and, I'm afraid, not a very handsome woman. No boobs to speak of, no great shape, her ears were kind'a big... they stuck out through her hair-do, and her nose REALLY needed some kind of plastic surgery. Not a pretty dame. Not pretty at all.

"Sit down, Jude. I'll just be a minute," said Rad, as he put the coffee on.

"How? What? Who? Hey Rad, this is ME... Jude, you're talking to. Where did you dig HER up? Is she for real? Is she a woman or...."

"Just hang in there, Jude, for a couple, and I'11 tell you the whole story," said Rad, as he got down two cups and saucers, and opened up the fridge. "Cake? Oh, sure, I remember, you have a sweet tooth.. of COURSE you'll have cake!" He took out a plate with a cover on it, and went about the task of setting us up a place to snack... all the while humming contentedly under his breath.

"Don't you mess up MY kitchen," yelled Rachel, as she came through the swinging door into the kitchen.

"No, dear," said Rad.

"I mean it, now, dammit!"

"Not to worry, dear. I'11 clean everything up when I get through."

"Uh-huh. Well, don't make too damned much noise, and get rid of your.." she glared over at me.. "company before too late."

"Yes, dear. We won't be very long."

"See that you aren't!" said Rachel, and steamed back out of the room.

"Rad," I said. "You've got to tell me what the hell is going ON here."

"Of course I will. That's why I had you come over," said Rad, setting down two cups of coffee, and easing into a chair across from me. "What do you think of her?"

I looked at the door apprehensively. "Well.... gee, I don't know, Rad. Is she a woman, or a..." I couldn't seem to say the word.

"Robot? Sure, she's a robot. I built her," said Rad, smiling.

I was lost. I knew enough about Rad, his past, his present, just what he was capable of doing. I couldn't figure this one out at all. That’s about all I could think to say.

"I can't figure it out. What do you need with a wife?" "She's going to make it possible for me to carry on my work."

The door to the kitchen swung open again. "Don't forget to carry out the garbage tonight,” said Rachel, Rad’s "No, dear" was lost on her as she popped back out of the room.

"But..." I started.

"Think about this, Jude. You know what put us out of business. The rumor that I was not a human being. People have grown to accept robots. It isn't like there was a whole lot of hate, or prejudice, or anything. It’s just that they can't accept them as God-inspired. They are only too well aware that they are made either by men, or other robots. I had to put the rumor to rest. What ONE thing separates man from robot? Sex. Since we don't need sex, we don't need women. If a man has a wife, he is just not suspect of being a robot. Simple, isn't it? I don't know why I didn't think of it before."

"I can see that. I don't know why I didn't think of it myself, when we were talking about ways to get around the rumor... before you shut down the operation."

"Then you think it's going to work," Rad said. I couldn't tell from his inflection if it was a question or a statement.

"Work? Sure it will work. But...."

"But what, Jude?" asked Rad, smiling.

"Look, Rad... I know you. I know.... no... I take that back... I don't know... but I THINK I know what you are capable of doing. You could have made yourself a real help-mate.... Gorgeous, a little SHORTER than you ... a well modulated voice... why Rachel?"

"I wanted no suspicions. If you thought I was a robot, but wasn't SURE, would a perfect wife really convince you I was a man... knowing a robot’s capability of building robots?"

"No.... I suppose not... but Rachel?"

The door burst open again, and Rachel barged back into the Kitchen. "Behind you, now, clean up this crap, and lock up. I'm going upstairs."

"Yes, dear." said Rad.

"Pleased to have met you, Ma'am," I said.

"Humph," said Rachel, as she sailed out of the room.

"Can't you see it, Jude? Nobody in his right mind would believe a robot would build a wife like Rachel. I wanted this 'marriage' to look perfectly normal to everyone else. Marriage is NOT perfect for many people... not real people, Jude. If we were a perfect couple, few people would believe it. Perfect couples can be made by robots. They are, contrary to popular belief, seldom 'made in heaven.' Rachel is not pretty, doesn't have a pleasing voice, and, you might say, only an idiot would have married her." He chuckled. "Haven't you ever noticed how often you see beautiful women married to homely men and vice-versa? I've programmed Rachel to nag, spend money like it was going to go rotten sitting in the bank, disapprove of everything I say or do, disapprove of my friends and acquaintances, be demanding, ignore anything I say, and make goo-goo eyes at every man she sees."

“Get RID of that bum!” came Rachel’s voice, from the other room.

"You get the picture, Jude? Now I can continue my work." He raised his voice. "YES DEAR," he called, and sat back, grinning happily.

That's All, folks.

Captain George Nuptials

We interrupt this tome with joyous news.

This past weekend was a happy occasion for former StarText subscriber George Mertz, who entered into the blissful state of matrimony with his fiance, Movi.

While StarText couldn't be there, it was more than well represented by the always-ready-to-celebrate David Duke. The Duke has kind enough to share these pictures.

Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Mertz, and many years of happiness to you both!


George and Movi Mertz


The Duke, George and Movi


Movi and the Duke


George and the Duke

Introducing StarText: The Little Online Service That Could

Odds are good you have never heard the name "StarText" and have no idea what it is, or was.

That's not surprising. A little like "Star Wars," it all happened a long time ago (in Internet years) in a cyber-galaxy far, far away (as cyber-galaxies go, at least.)

Okay. Maybe not that long ago (27 years) and not so far away (Texas). But let's not quibble about that.

Think of StarText as a mini-version of the Internet, more than a decade before the World Wide Web made the scene. It was known under many names: One of the first online newspapers; a BBS (Bulletin Board Service); the "instant news that doesn't rub off on your hands" and as one StarText customer termed it, "the best bargain since nickel parking in Cleburne." (Cleburne, Texas -- look it up.)

In the days before the Web, there were thousands of Bulletin Board Services and a handful of major online networks, like CompuServe and The Source, rushing to connect people around the world. But I would like to submit for your consideration: StarText stood apart. It was in many ways -- different. In a word ... special.

In the many years that have passed since StarText made its debut -- May 3, 1982 -- technology has moved on and so have the people who conceived, built and used StarText. But as one of those pioneers who opted to "go West" when the Internet wasn't even a twinkle in the eye of a modem, it's that "specialness" that deserves to be told.

It's a story I've been trying to tell for the last 10 years or more. Between the demands of career and family, and lack of interest among publishers, it has languished on my hard drive. But I feel it shouldn't languish any more.

So via this blog I am going to tell the story of how a small but dedicated group of people at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram joined together, defied all odds and managed to create one of the nation's first online success stories.

It's my hope that the thousands who were part of StarText will join and tell their own story here as well. That is the magic of online. We can all connect in a multi-level consersation that flows both ways, one of the "ah ha" moments we discovered early on. It also means you get to be my editors, and every writer needs a good editor or two.

For lifelong journalists, like myself, there's also a bit of irony. Here was a newspaper, its industry much maligned of late for its utter indifference to changing audiences and its failure to adapt, launching an online version of itself many years before there was a Net. Some of us did see it coming. We jettisoned our newsroom careers and put our hearts and souls into making it happen. But obviously it hasn't enough -- so far. The forever echoes of what might have been ...

That's part of the story as well. And another facet to be explored.

Before we begin, I want to start with a Dedication.

This effort is lovingly dedicated to the workers, subscribers and followers of StarText, all the special people who made it special. And on a personal note, to my wonderful soulmate and wife, Pam, who endured more than I'll ever know while her husband followed his dream. This is for all of you.

The Story of StarText: 1981

(Note: This is one in a continuing series tracing the history of StarText. Read it from the beginning by using the Archive Post links on the right.)


1981 -- Our Government Wasn't Ready

Whether you spell it with the ending “t” or without, videotext was the first rung on the ladder that would eventually lead us to the World Wide Web.

And in 1981, there was great excitement worldwide over its prospects.

European countries were blazing the trail for the rest of us. In England it was Prestel. In France, it was Minitel. Each had impetus as part of government-funded initiatives. Here in the United States, the landscape was different. Our government wasn’t ready to fund an information device in everyone’s home. But private corporations were serving the ever-growing number of personal computers with ASCII-text applications. CompuServe was the leader. The Source was another. It wasn’t pretty but it was pretty amazing.

Maybe a good place to insert a note about "ASCII" -- American Standard Code for Information Exchange, one of the many new words this journalist aded to his vocabulary. Basically a common way to display text characters every computer understands. Those ones and zeros, you know.

The idea of moving information around via telephone lines, modems and computers was gaining acceptance. And this notion of having a private electronic mailbox where you could exchange messages instantly with friends, co-workers or even strangers – that was something this side of mind-boggling.

In the midst of all this activity, as industry giants jockeyed for position, little attention was given to a newly launched online service that emerged from a place in Texas that proudly wore the label, Cowtown. That place was Fort Worth. Also known as Where the West Begins -- the home of world class museums like the Kimbell and the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, or for the fighter jets produced by Lockheed, not to mention the Stockyards and the world’s biggest honky tonk, Billy Bob’s.

Fort Worth was also home for the newspaper of record, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and electronic retailing giant, The Tandy Corp., parent company of Radio Shack. And in 1981, the business interests of those two very different companies would come together to create what would eventually become one of the very few online success stories of the decade.

But that’s getting ahead of the story.

In 1981, I had been working in the Star-Telegram newsroom for just over 10 years. Starting as a copy editor on the afternoon paper (when just about every town in America had an afternoon and morning paper), I had enjoyed an interesting mix of jobs. They included local copy desk chief, rock music writer, op-ed columnist and features production editor.

For someone who aspired to work on a newspaper since the sixth grade, it was my dream career -- editing, writing, working elbow to elbow with the men wearing green eye shades. But my career was about to take a hard right turn, thanks to Tom Steinert-Threlkeld.

Tom, a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the Harvard Business School, wore several hats at the Star-Telegram. One was reporter for the business section, specializing in electronics coverage. Another was Research Director – Electronic Publishing for the Star-Telegram’s parent company, Capital Cities Communications (later to become Capital Cities/ABC when they swallowed up the ABC Television Network). For the latter, he was charged with investigating the full range of emerging technologies and reporting back to corporate.

Phillip J. Meek, who served as president and publisher of the Star-Telegram and later, President/ ABC Publishing Group as well as senior vice president for ABC after the Capital Cities/ABC merger, recalled Steinert-Threlkeld’s hiring in a November, 1997 interview with me:

“In 1979, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram hired its first and only graduate straight from the Harvard Business School. (I) was impressed with a former newspaper reporter who had gone on to get business training. As an added plus, he indicated a strong desire to spend the first year or so as a business writer in the newsroom, which was a most contrarian attitude for an HBS grad of that era.

“As a prolific writer, Tom made an immediate impact on the business pages of the
Star-Telegram, concentrating on technology and the Tandy corporation, which was emerging as an early leader in personal computer development and sales. He traveled constantly to industry meetings and built up a wide range of contacts. After about 18 months, he indicated a desire to move onto the business side at what turned out to be a propitious time.

“The head of publishing for the parent company, Capital Cities Communications, had concluded that its chairman and chief executive officer, Tom Murphy, needed someone to bring him up to speed on the fast -changing technology side. Steinert-Threlkeld was assigned that task on a part-time basis, still operating out of Fort Worth.”

In my 1997 interview with him, Steinert-Threkeld recalled the circumstances that led to his involvement:

“In November or December of 1979,” Tom said, “then-managing editor Henry Holcomb asked me, as electronics writer, to write up a report on the potential impact of electronic publishing on newspapers. This was for some look-ahead-at-the-next-decade project he had been charged with completing, presumably by or for Phil Meek. My report was to be just one piece of this overall package of looks-forward regarding different facets of editorial operations.

“Well, the report came out at about the time that CompuServe was initiating an attempt to produce content for its inchoate online service by recruiting newspapers to be content providers. The Star-Telegram was among those broached. Holcomb and Meek, as I recall it, asked me to take a look at what CompuServe had going.”

Tom “was very unimpressed. At 300 baud, it was very slow. And its menu structure was very cumbersome and uninspired. So I recommended that we not participate and that we do something on our own. Joe Donth (Star-Telegram director of data processing, soon to play a key role himself) became involved at this point, and, in his office one day, we hit on the idea of using predefined keywords to simulate keyword searching, because it would not require much processing power. To this day, I think we were the first to hit on this idea for an online service, now widely used by AOL and others.

“In any case, as Joe and I tried to figure out a way to justify doing our own online service in-house, there was a contact from (Tandy CEO) John Roach, through Meek, to inquire about our interest in doing a videotext service. Videotext was kind of hot back then, with a lot of attention on Knight-Ridder's Viewtron project (Capital Cities and Knight-Ridder entered into a data share agreement in November, 1981) and Times-Mirror Gateway project. Tandy Corp. hoped to move a lot of videotext terminals, really the forerunner of what we now are calling network computers. The videotext servers would provide all the info and services; users would just have these cheap dumb terminals that plugged into their TV sets, for displays.

(You can see what the Tandy Videotex terminal looked like by following this link:)

http://www.thecocolounge.com/videotex.htm

“Roach also wanted to sell the servers, with videotext services and modems driving sales of Tandy computers. I can't recall the original Tandy machines that were supposed to serve as the servers. But they were early in the TRS-80/Tandy line.” As we would all later discover, “they proved well under-powered for the purpose.

“As for why I championed the idea of doing something, it was clear to me that this was not just some extension of newspapering, but an entirely new medium. There seemed nothing so challenging or with as much long-term promise as figuring out how to make the most effective use of the new method for effectively using text and graphics to communicate: The cathode ray tube.”

It was this notion, that we were about to embark on something that was “not just some extension of newspapering, but an entirely new medium” that sparked my interest. That plus the fact I had just completed a major assignment, titled “The Information Age,” co-authored by Tom and John Paul Newport, a former quarterback for Yale who had recently joined the staff.

Meek recalled that “Tandy pushed the newspaper to join together and start a local videotext service, which Tandy saw as a way to sell home computers, and Tom was assigned responsibility for that effort, working with the MIS director, Joe Donth.”

On paper, the joint venture appeared to be good fit. As the local newspaper, we brought content and credibility. As a leader in consumer technology, Tandy brought its computer and retailing expertise. It was also a time when sales of personal computers were on the increase and Radio Shack was among the early leaders with its line of Tandy TRS-80 Models I, II and III, as well as the Color Computer.

But this local information service would be primarily directed toward a new Tandy product, the “videotex terminal” Steinert-Threlkeld mentioned. Low slung, in a molded dark gray case with a built-in keyboard, the Tandy TRS-80 Videotex Terminal was a “dumb terminal” built solely to access databases. Retailing for $399, it had a built-in 300-baud modem (state-of-the-art at the time, moving text across the screen at a blazing 30 characters a second) and RF modulator, which connected the unit to a television set for its display. There was a small red light on the top that glowed when the unit was online. The first models came with 4K of RAM, expandable to 16K.

While hard to imagine by today’s standards, it had a curious way of downloading information. But more on that shortly.

By November of 1981, a plan had been developed for the deployment of this new joint
Star-Telegram/Tandy venture, which now had a name:“STAR-Text” (later modified to StarText). Why StarText? Early on, Steinert-Threlkeld told us we needed a name for this new service – and finding a name that wasn’t taken might be tough. One day, at the copy machine, it came to me. “The Star-Telegram is a partner and the service will deliver information as text,” I told Tom. “How about StarText?” He liked it. We applied for the trademark and copyright and our new venture had a name.

Among the primary objectives put forward in the plan were:

-- Test consumer acceptance of text and graphical information.
-- Conduct market research of its services and features.
-- Promote the sales of personal computers.
-- Become a profitable enterprise.
-- Brand the Star-Telegram and Tandy as information and technology leaders.

The plan also addressed some key guidelines. Interestingly enough, I think most would agree the guidelines set forth then are every bit as critical now to the success of today’s Internet ventures:

-- It must be low cost (today that translates to "free")
-- It must be easy to use.
-- It must be easy to understand.
-- It must be highly immediate (provide the latest news).
-- It must be tailored to serve specialized information needs.

The service, “to carry the name STARText, will be a 24-hour information service offered to residents of Tarrant County on a subscription basis. It will offer general news, weather and other information to consumers as well as specialized information products to specialized audiences.”

The Star-Telegram wasn’t the only information provider. Another was Merrill Lynch, who would be offering subscribers stock prices, commodity prices and national news related to stock and commodity services. There also would be information from Radio Shack on its products as well as Fort Worth area computer clubs. Another interesting twist: Radio Shack would also obtain airline schedules for DFW International Airport.

As Steinert-Threkeld noted, it was decided, against the conventional wisdom of the day, that subscribers would access information on StarText by using keywords rather than menus. At that time most of the online consumer services of the day required users to “branch” through databases via menu selections. Typically, you were presented a set of options. Depending on your choice, you were given a second set of options, and so forth – a process that was often tedious, time-consuming and laborious (but great for the services that charged by the minute). This specification that the system be engineered for keyword access to categories of information was indeed a new concept.

While new ground was being broken in navigation, the actual retrieval of the information was much more cumbersome. Due to the restrictions in the software, access would be on an “advanced entry”- method, sometimes referred to as “dump and disconnect.” The subscriber would enter their ID, plus up to four requests for information, or keywords, offline. The terminal or computer makes the connection. The requested information is downloaded into the user’s local memory and the connection broken. Subscribers then read the information offline and have to repeat the whole process if they have additional information requests.

Despite the magic and hype of actually reading a newspaper remotely on a screen, with information moving along at a snail-like 300 baud, the experience was fairly painful, even for the die-hard tekkies and early-adopters.

So a provision was made that Tandy would upgrade the software to provide true “online” access within six months of launch. This was viewed as critical if the service were to expand and grow.

Other interesting points spelled out by the plan:

-- At launch, subscribers initially would pay $5 a month for StarText service. After the online upgrade became available, the price would go to $7.50. The Star-Telegram would handle the billing, which would be in three-month ncrements.

-- Promotion and marketing: The Star-Telegram would provide house ads on a fixed schedule; Tandy would do direct mail and in-store demonstrations at all area Radio Shacks.

-- t was suggested that terminals be provided free to several city and state officials to allow politicians to be in touch with local events. You could call it an early forerunner to services like E the People.

-- The Star-Telegram pledged to hire “sufficient personnel to operate the database on a continuously updated basis from 6 a.m. to midnight seven days a week.”

-- The host computer would be a Tandy TRS-80 Model II. The system would come up with 3,000 frames of information, stored on four floppy drives.

-- Future expansion would include interactive features, shopping services and archived news retrieval. As time would prove, all ideas which were right on the money, literally.

-- Service would launch in the early part of 1982.

With a few exceptions, Charles Phillips, senior vice president for Radio Shack, accepted the plan and the wheels were set in motion for residents of Tarrant County to be among the first in the country to have its local newspaper available to them on a personal computer. Cowtown was about to take its first steps into the Information Age.

Staffing

With Donth overseeing the technical details, Steinert-Threlkeld tackled the news staffing issue. His approach was asking for three volunteers from the Star-Telegram newsroom – editors with a sense of adventure, not afraid to take a few risks, willing to take “the New Media plunge.”

Having just completed the “Information Age” project, I was already primed. But the attraction went beyond that. As a journalist, I was fascinated with the notion of providing readers news as it happens – like television – but with a depth that television couldn’t provide. The combination of immediacy and the unlimited news hole, not to mention the possibility of having a two-way dialogue with our readers, was a powerful inducement. This had the potential to revolutionize journalism and what a great opportunity to be in on the ground floor. It also was the chance to help in some small way to architect a new medium. And how many times does an opportunity like that come along in a career?

Of course, these were all arguments I used when it came time to convince my wife Pam. Her reaction wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic as mine. What pained the most is that I would be giving up writing, which she knew was my first love.

All I could say was, “Trust me – one day this online stuff was going to be big.” Of course I had nothing to back up that claim except a gut feeling. As for writing, it would just be on hold for a little while. So after some more discussion, some soul searching and a few prayers, I told Tom to count me in.

I would be joining two other newsroom veterans, John Durham, who would head up the team, and Jim Smead. John came onboard first to begin the initial planning; Jim and I would join soon afterwards.

Meek remembered those events from a slightly different perspective:

“Partly as a result of the split responsibilities with his corporate role, there was some confusion about oversight of the StarText project,” said Meek, “and Tom tended to act independently of the local management structure. One result was an unauthorized raid of the newsroom, and three editors were hired away at higher salaries to work on StarText.”

Call it unathorized or entreprenurial, I’m fairly certain StarText wouldn’t have enjoyed the success it did if it had been run as a traditional department of the newspaper. So it was probably fitting we started in such a nontraditional way.

The other member of the team was Joe Donth, the no-nonsense, hard-nosed director of the Star-Telegram’s MIS department. Known for his business acumen, Donth had a penchant for problem solving and a reputation as an exceptional programmer. He also had another quality that cast him into a leadership position throughout the history of StarText: Joe was a visionary. While his primary job would always be running the ever-expanding and demanding MIS operation, Joe’s true love was inventing the future. Without Joe’s involvement and guidance, StarText would have never survived to reach adulthood.

Thus began what Joe would later characterize as “the most unauthorized project” in the history of Capital Cities.

BISON -- It's Not a Buffalo

(Note: This is one in a continuing series tracing the history of StarText. Read it from the beginning by using the Archive Post links on the right)


BISON: Belo Information Systems On-line


While StarText was barely in the planning stages, 30 miles to the east The Dallas Morning News was busy deploying its own online service. In 1981, Belo, the parent company of The Dallas Morning News, launched the service it called BISON – the acronym for Belo Information Systems On-Line Network. If it wasn’t the first, it certainly was among the first local online services launched by a U.S. newspaper.

BISON had its genesis in 1980, when Gean W. Holden was hired early that year as Director of Corporate Research/Technology and head of Belo Informations Systems, a division of the A.H. Belo Company. Holden wasted little time in putting the wheels in motion to create a consumer videotex service. In a memo prepared for the 1980 annual report, Holden detailed the steps that led to BISON’s creation.

In March of 1980, Holden held early discussions with BISON’s partners, Texas Instruments, Sammons Cable and Dow Jones, another pioneer in distributing financial information online. Holden had just returned from the Viewdata Conference in London, where he was energized by what he saw and heard. He called it “the best conference I’ve ever been to because there was so much to be learned.” (The year before, the Britain Post Office launched Prestel, an early online service streamed via telephone lines to dedicated terminals. It had been in development since the mid-70s.)

The partners reconvened in early April at the TI Corporate Engineering Center to hammer out a proposed budget for the launch of the “Park Cities Experiment.” Park Cities, an affluent Dallas suburb, was chosen as the test market for a new Sammons “data retrieval network” that would include access to stories from The Dallas Morning News.

A story published in the Morning News on May 16, 1980, under the headline, “Sammons unveils special cable network,” provided details on what Park Cities residents could expect.

Quoting from the article:

“Sammons Communications Inc. said Thursday it will offer 200 of its Park Cities Cable Television subscribers access to an elaborate data retrieval network, beginning this summer.

“Dow Jones & Co. Inc. of Princeton, N.J., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, and Belo Information Systems, a division of the A.H. Belo Corp. of Dallas, which publishes The Dallas Morning News, also will participate. They will supply subscribers with business and financial information, news and other data via the home computer access system.

“Merrill Lynch & Co. of New York will join the experiment to provide brokerage information.

“Jim Whitson, president of Sammons Communications, announced the agreement in Dallas, along with Gean Holden, director of Research and Technology for Belo Corp., and William L. Dunn, vice president and general manager of Dow Jones.

“The Sammons Park Cities project will be the first anywhere to involve large numbers of cable television subscribers access to information banks in several cities from private home terminals.

“ ‘Our idea is to offer a nearly limitless data retrieval capability with our cable TV system,’ Whitson said. ‘By adding home terminals, a keyboard and a screen, the cable system becomes an electronic newspaper and financial encyclopedia. This is the kind of 2-way cable systems most companies have only thought of in terms of the future.’

“In structuring the Park Cities data retrieval system, Sammons will follow the format of a recently successful Dow Jones project involving individual access by four families and two businesses in the Las Colinas development in Irving (Texas).

“Participants will be linked by cable and satellite through their computer terminals with a central Dow Jones computer at South Brunswick, N.J. and the Belo Information Systems computer in Dallas.”

It continued:

“For Belo Information Systems, the project will be the first experiment with individual, consumer access of data bases. Holden said information available to the system from
The Dallas Morning News will include the current day’s news, stories, sports, weather and restaurant and entertainment guides.

“Belo Information Systems also is expected to begin experimenting with classified advertising, which will be accessible to the home terminal. A typical local problem that could be solved with a classified access system would be house hunting.

“With a computer terminal, the user would feed the system a variety of information, detailing the basic requirements, _location, number of bedrooms and price range, Within seconds a list of homes for sale, fitting the described requirements, would appear on that screen.”

Three decades later, that’s exactly how many of us do it.

By May, the pieces were falling into place. The staff for BISON began to take shape as personnel were interviewed and hired. Offices were established at The Registry, an upscale Dallas office complex on LBJ Freeway. Arrangements were made for the installation of the TI equipment. BISON would be hosted on Tandem Nonstop computers, considered the Cadillac of its time.

At the same time, meetings were held with local automobile dealers to gauge interest in taking their business online. Holden comments, “After two attempts that didn’t work out very well, we took the terminal out to several dealers for on-site demonstrations and that proved to be very positive.” There were also discussions with the phone company about placing the white pages online. The conclusion: “It would not be cheap and would not be easy, but it could be done.”

All the staff (by one estimate 35 in all) were in place by the end of July and getting familiar with the TI hardware and software. In August, communications links between downtown and The Registry offices were in place and work was proceeding on organizing the database for the Park Cities experiment Later that month, BISON got its first unveiling at demonstrations for executives at Sammons and the Belo Board.

September was devoted to debugging and tweaking the software. Two DEC terminals were installed in Morning News newsroom to accommodate data transmissions to The Registry. The scene was set for the impending launch of the Park Cities experiment the following month.

The Park Cities Experiment went live Oct. 19, 1980. But, in a story all too familiar to new media pioneers, its debut wasn’t entirely smooth sailing. “Just before we began the service,” writes Holden, “we installed the new disks, everything crashed and we lost the database.” They were able to install the TI terminals in the homes and “we were able to get the service going despite all the problems.”

That same month, BISON was showcased at online shows in San Francisco (Information Industries Association) and San Diego (LINK Conference), where people were “amazed that we were able to get the system on the air in such a short period of time.”

The Park Cities Experiment concluded on Dec. 19, 1980.

Writing in the first annual report after the company became publicly traded in December, 1981, Joe Dealey, chairman of the board and chief executive officer, noted:

“Through Belo Information Systems Division, the Company is engaged in interactive electronic distribution of information to the home. In 1981 the Company spent almost $1 million in this new venture, an increase of approximately $670,000 over the prior year.”

In June, 1982, one month after the launch of StarText in Fort Worth, Belo suspended BISON. The 1982 annual report had this to say:

“In June, 1982, we suspended the test phase of Belo Informations Systems On-Line Network (BISON), our home information subscription service. This program was introduced in August of 1981 as a research and development effort to determine the technical dimensions, market potential and user acceptance of interactive home videotex. Although the BISON system was a technical success, we concluded that the commercial market for interactive home videotex systems is not sufficiently developed to justify the continuation of significant expenditures. However, we believed we learned a great deal from the BISON project which will serve us well in the future. We will maintain a minimal staff to keep abreast of technical and market developments in this field and provide us flexibility to re-enter this market once the videotex market materializes."

Many years later one former Belo manager characterized BISON this way: "We would have done as well digging a hole, dumping in $3 million and setting it on fire."

Regardless of the outcome, you have to give them credit for jumping in the pool first. The Cue Cat? That's another story.