An Interview with Jack D. Lail

Manager / Online Publishing, The Knoxville News-Sentinel

 Reprinted with Permission

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askSam: Jack, can you describe your present role at the News-Sentinel as well as reflect on the changes you've experienced at the newspaper during the last ten to fifteen years?

JACK LAIL:   I'm manager of Online Publishing for The Knoxville News-Sentinel, a Scripps Howard newspaper and the third largest daily newspaper in Tennessee. In the online world, we operate three primary Web sites -- www.knoxnews.com, www.govols.com, www.gosmokies.com -- that together generate over a million page views a month. A relative "pioneer" in Internet newspapers, we put up our first newspaper Web pages in December 1994. There may have been a 150 newspapers on the Internet at that time. Now there's over 2,500 and growing.

But we've seen many, many changes in the newspaper in the last 15 years. We've gone from dedicated mainframe word processers to PCs and standard operating systems. We've gone from faxed "laser photos" from the Associated Press to digital images and ads delivered electronically.  We've gone from reporters using Radio Shack Model 100s with 8 line screens to writers packing Pentiums on the road.

The list goes on and on, and it's changing every day.

askSam:   What applications have your found for the askSam family of products during this time?

JACK LAIL:   I find askSam a convenient and flexible personal productivity tool. I'm not locked in to a rigid format.

I use it to keep contacts (addresses, phone numbers). This is my oldest askSam file and indispensable at this point. The format has evolved over the years, but I can still search and find any name in any record ... regardless of how field names have changed over the years.

I write almost all memos within an askSam file. It makes it very easy to find things later.

I have an encrypted and password protected password askSam database to keep track of various passwords we use to access protected areas of Web sites or web servers.

I have an askSam database that serves as a production guide to the people who work on our Web sites. Reports are generated by day (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday....etc.) that tell us what tasks need to be on our Web sites.

I use the appointments file in the "Office" application to keep track of where I'm supposed to be when.

And I use askSam files to store information filled out on our Website "guest book" and "contest" forms.  These comma-delimited text files are imported into askSam.

askSam:  How has askSam made your job any easier, faster or more efficient?

JACK LAIL:  Too much software is bloated and slow.  I like askSam because for a Windows program of its power, it has a very small footprint and loads quickly.  And I can make it fit my style instead of adapting what I do to the program.

askSam: Can you describe the customer support you have received as a user?

JACK LAIL:   Calling up askSam for tech support is like going over to a friend's house for help. They just haven't figured out how to serve apple pie over the phone!   A guy like Paul Wilson takes an askSam problem personally.

askSam:  Would you recommend askSam and why?

JACK LAIL:   I've always recommended it. Some people like a more structured record and field approach and that's fine ... for them. This works for me.

askSam: What applications do you plan for askSam in the future?

JACK LAIL:   It's a handy tool when you need to do some down and dirty data processing in a hurry. I'm sure I'll be using it for some application where I need to make sense of some loosely structured information.

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Jack D. Lail     

The Knoxville News-Sentinel     

Post Office Box 59038

Knoxville  TN 37950-9038

Email: lail@knews.com

URL: http://www.knoxnews.com

         http://www.govols.com

         http://www.gosmokies.com