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THE NEWSMAKER STORY

NewsMaker Systems was founded by Dean Kolkey and Tony Chick, two pioneers in newsroom production technology. Dean and Tony worked initially in the newspapers industry and later moved into customized automation for radio and television broadcast news. Dean started his professional career in 1974 with Autologic, Inc. a leading manufacturer of computerized typesetting equipment used for newspaper production. He led projects with IBM and several major newspaper chains including Knight-Ridder and Scripts-Howard. At the same time, Tony was working as the system administrator for a newly installed newspaper production system at the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. On January 1, 1982, Dean and Tony worked together to create the world’s first electronically composed full-page newspaper layout, with the Pasadena Star-News.

In 1986 Dean and Tony began the development of a PC based newspaper production system that was used by both Sears (for production of their Christmas Wish Books and other catalogs) and at Josten's Printing and Publishing where it was used to produce school yearbooks. In 1989, Dean and Tony began their work in television and radio news automation with the introduction of the NewsMaker Electronic Newsroom (also known as NEN). NEN was widely adopted in television news and sports, with news installations at CBS O&O’s and sports projects including CBS Sports and the NFL Today. NEN also became the backbone for all CBS Winter Olympics broadcasts, including the 1992 Albertville, 1994 Lillehammer, and 1998 Nagano Olympic Games.

They pioneered the fully automated 24-hour news production model with the Time Warner Cable news channel New York 1 News, later adopted by many other stations including Channel One (London), RNews (Rochester, NY), BayNews 9 (Tampa, FL), and OCN (Orange County, CA). The NewsMaker Electronic Newsroom was installed at over 120 stations worldwide and was being used to produce thousands of television news shows per day. NewsMaker developed a reputation for rock solid newsroom software and outstanding device control. This strength at device control led to the development of the StarDrive Automation system to control hundreds of production devices like video routers, video switchers, master control switchers, video tape machines, video cart machines, video servers, character generators, stills stores and robotic camera systems. Dean and Tony were recipients of the Pioneer in Industry Award given by NewsWorld at NAB 2000. This honor recognized the individuals that created the earliest Newsroom Computer Systems. NewsMaker continued to develop its news automation suite throughout the 2000’s, and has partnered with NewTek to bring their diverse skillset to the TriCaster Family and IP Series.