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Show DAILY HERALD EC How NFL Films sets the standard impossible to conceive of success and of sports broadcasting over the last 42 years without Ed and Steve SaboL Each time football season starts, I think of these two men and how a wedding gift and a $3,000 bid led to a media powerhouse. The Sabols are living lessons of both and striving for excellence, revolutionizing the way sports are filmed and packaged around the world. The company they founded and still run, NFL Films, has been featured on "60 Minutes," written about in numerous newspaper and magazine stories, and honored with many accolades, including 87 Emmys. The Sabols pioneered packaging football with the use of n y color film, ansequences, gles, dramatic music and the of incomparable voice-ove- r John Facenda. They directly gave birth to Monday Night Football's unforgettably popular "Half Time Highlights," initially narrated by Howard DTI Continued from El Journal, a weekly his family started in 1969. The newspaper ceased publication in 2002. Digital Technology's software allows newspapers to be electronically paginated and provides writing tools for shared data archives, as well as budget tools that help in the preproduction planning of newspapers. "Our software was written initially for classified ads production in weeklies. It allows you to hook up a computer to a photo typesetter that puts classified ads into the proper type-styl- e and outputs them into Our software also elimlnat-- . ed the manual task of finding! cutting and throwing out ads that had expired," Oldham said. "Back in the '80s, computer screens could only show words but not graphics. But we found a client, Apple, which made the Apple Lisa, one of the first desktop computers that could show type faces and graphics on the screen. We wrote the software for the Apple Lisa to do display ads, but when the Apple Lisa was canceled and replaced by the Mackintosh, we It's risk-takin- g . slow-motio- high-qualit- d Cosell. What started in 1962 with a handheld movie camera and winning bid to film the NFL championship game is now a corporation with 275 employees, millions in revenue, and a double-dig- it annual growth rate. It's a company that has branched out, producing sports segments for Hollywood films such as "Jerry Maguire" and "Rudy," in addition to commercials, music videos, concert films and corporate videos. NFL Films got its start in the early '60s when Ed was selling overcoats in Philadelphia for his father-in-laEd was a good salesman but his product was not his passion. Film and football, not topcoats, excited him. He increasingly devoted his attention to the small Bell & Howell movie camera his mother-in-law had given him as a wedding present. When he felt reasonably proficient with it, he sought the contract to film the 1962 NFL championship game, made a bid, and got it. Shortly thereafter, he talked NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle into creating NFL Films. What NFL Films went on to do for professional football many people consider one of the best corporate public relations jobs ever. Whenever you hesitate to undertake a venture for lack of experience, ponder this: When Ed bid for the NFL film concession, his only experience was shooting son Steve playing high school football. NFL Films set up headquar- ters in the early days in a bare bones suite of offices a short sprint from Philadelphia's Skid Row. Today the company has a $45 million complex in a New Jersey suburb, including a studio replete with equipment geared to television production. Ed, now in his 80s, has retired, but Steve, as president and creative director, carries on the company tradition of excelinnovation. lence and Steve spoke recently of the state-of-the-a- rt all-o- Harvey Mackay gal-ley- s. Positive Struggles highlights of his business philosophy: I "People say you have to treat everyone equally. Not true. You have to treat everyone fairly. You have to know that, some people work better starting at 10 a.m. and others have to be here by 8 a.m.; that some deserve a corner office and others don't want it. The key is to have everyone in the company understand." I "I believe in instant rewards. Five hundred bucks, sometimes, if someone does something great. Not at the end of the year, but right then It's not just money, but recog- drawls from under a Stetson-shape- d hard hat. It's a common refrain in Kern County. Just as in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana even in Los Angeles County cities such as Signal Hill and Long Beach its oil fields are slowly running dry. At stake is not just the livelihood of independent drillers like Holmes but also the economy and identity of a re? gion that for a century has helped keep California one of states. the top "People don't realize what oil has meant to the communities of the San Joaquin Valley," said Sally Kinney, 52, a waitress whose grandparents moved from Oklahoma during the Great Depression. "Used to be everyone you'd meet had ties in some way to oil," Kinney said. "Now, fewer people know the fields. ... There's too many other options than to tie their future to a resource that won't be around forever." Kern is still California's top county. At nearly 200 million barrels in 2002, the region generates three-fourtof California's oil, more than any state but Alaska and Texas h and about of overall U.S. production. Some oil companies continue to invest, and state officials predict there are at least 20 years of crude left in 75 active fields. But it's a finite resource, and plugging parched wells is now a thriving business. In 2002, regulators issued 2,000 permits to drill new wells and 2,500 to abandon old ones, said Randy Adams of the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources. Where pumps once stood, housing developments and strip malls have blossomed. The Kern County fields have been declining by 3 percent to 5 percent annually since 1985, Adams said. That's not an ex- - things; money, power and a title. But I find they most value freedom primarily the freedom to fail. Many great achievements come from the accumulation of failures." I "Hire the person, don't fill the position. I want people who want to work here. We'll find them a place. We have a former jeweler here who found he had a talent for archiving. It's like the football draft. You draft the best player available. You may be up to your eyeballs in quarterbacks, but if the best player is a quarterback, draft him and you won't be sorry." I "We're different from most companies because we do everything at NFL Films from script to screen; from the . film developing, music, writing, editing and production. By doing it all in one location, it provides us with a great continuity, and it is definitely one of the secrets of our success. We've had one continuous creative vision for 40 years." From the start they have been known for innovation curand creativity. ESPN rently celebrating 25 years of has excellent broadcasting no bigger influence than NFL Films, a simple idea with driven leaders who have a solid core business philosophy and .. encourage Now that's a winning play. one-tent- risk-taking- Mackay's Moral: Going the extra yard always leads to crossing the goal line. I Harvey Mackay is author of the New York Times best seller "Pushing the Envelope" (Ballantine Books). He can be reached through his Web site: www.mackay.com; or Mackay Envelope Corp., 2100 Elm St., Minneapolis, MN 55414. TERM SIMPLE INTEREST RATE ANNUAL PERCENTAGE YIELD 2 Year 4.07 4.15 3 Year 5.83 4 Year "6.77 5 Year 7.70 8.00 10 Year 9.53 m00' 6.00 7.00" Providing Financial Services Since 1951 For a Prospectus & Free Information Kit, Call www.advanta.comnotes The Annual Percentage Yields (APYs) above apply only to residents of Utah and are available through September 25, 2004. The APYs assume interest is paid only at maturity. This announcement is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy Notes. The offer is made only by Prospectus to residents of CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, KS, MA, MD. MN, NJ, NY, OR, PA, UT. Resident of states other than Utah should refer to the prospectus supplement applicable to their Mate for APYs available to. them, which are lower. The Notes are being sold by Advanta Corp. and the proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes. The Notes represent obligations of Advanta Corp. and are not insured or guaranteed by the FDIC , or any other governmental or private entity. Advanta Corp., a publicly owned company, is traded on NASDAQ (Symbols ADVNA & ADVNB). VlSTf OUR LOCAL OFFICE: 215 South Slat Street; 1st Floor ' " n. ." d research and Vienna, training consultant to the newspaper industry, said the online operations of newspapers typically lag the capability of the technology by several years." f, Oldham said its software, is designed to help reduce overhead costs in the form of discounts that newspapers give for mistakes made in designing advertisements. "On AdProof, once the ad design is completed on the comwill be sent to puter, an the advertisers telling them it is done end if changes needed to be made, these can be typed jh on online sticky notes. The newspaper wont run the ad until it is approved by the adver- - . tiser. So that reduces the likelihood of costly errors," he said. "No one has to manually print the ad, deliver the ad to the advertisers, wait for them to proof it, pick it up and bring it back to the newspaper." But NAAIfra's Smith disagreed, saying many advertisers, especially the small-t- o still resist the concept of soft proofing, or the process of using a computer monitor to make color and density decisions that accurately reflect What the image will look like when printed. Va-base- Ad-Proo- medium-advertiser- That's because many of , advertisers tend not to land connechave tions," he said. "The newspaper industry in general has also re-sisted contract proofing, or proofs that are part of a contract agreement between the advertiser and the printer. That's because proofing technology tends to make an ad proof look better than what comes out of their printing presses. And most newspapers wont guarantee that the proofs tones and colors are reproduced exactly." Digital Technology also partalent layed the in Utah County to its advantage in securing international clients, he said. The company gains international exposure through trade shows. Once the company has established a sizable customer base in a respective country, it will set up support offices there, he said. The company has a division in Brentwood, division England, a in Darmstadt, Germany, and sales offices in several one-ma-n Panama, Finland and northern Germany. It was also recently approved by the Mexican government to set up a support office in Mexico City. f these high-spee- d multi-linguist- ic er Continued from El Minimum investment $5,000 Terms available from 12 months to 10 years Interest compounded daily can be paid monthly, quarterly, semiannually, annually or at maturity Porkside fewer rewrote the editorial pagination and display ads software for Mackintosh in 1984. That software product, AdSpeed, was what got us the attention of the big dailies like The Washington Post and Detroit News," he said. ' In recent years, when many in the newspaper industry took a hit in advertising and circulation revenues because of the weak economy and the changing behavior of readers and advertisers, Digital Technology developed software aimed at reducing costly errors in ad design by allowing advertisers to place their own ads online, Oldham said. "Our studies found 25 percent of most newspapers' classified advertising customers tend to want to place ads online, and 47 percent of all classified ads placed online were being placed after hours," Oldham said. "Our software allows them to format the ad in various type faces and shows them what the ad looks like What happened was these classified advertisers started placing bigger ads online and the newspapers got more business because the advertisers could place ads 24-7But Owen Smith, president and managing director of NAAIfra Technical Solutions, a Oil nition." I "Employees value a lot of ' Sunday, September 19, 2004 Sab LakiCfyuTMUl Source Code: GPCBHXBPXX if t mmL . i y 4I i rnmm : ttBLSi r.v i, Air-- DAMIAN The Shell Oil Co. announced it would shutter the holding off to give more time to find a buyer ' , t fevi JHiq DOVARGANESAssoclated Press but refinery in Bakersfield, Calif. citing a decline in crude in the region. After a century of production that earned the Bakersfield region its reputation as the center of the universe for heavy oil in the United States, the fields of Kern County are slowly running dry. ceptionally high rate for an old field, according to industry experts. But because producers already are using advanced technology to tap existing pools, the drop is all the more acute. Last November, Shell Oil Co. announced it would shutter its refinery in Bakersfield, citing the decline in local production. Processing 70,000 barrels of local oil a day, the refinery is one of only 13 in the state that produce 400-work- California's required clean-ai- r gasoline. The proposed shutdown sparked protests from politicians and consumers who argued the closure would hike the already-inflate- d tab California motorists pay for gas. Under pressure from politicians and consumers and facing state and federal investigations Shell announced in August it would delay the shutdown to allow more time to find a buyer. The valley locals christened "California's Golden Empire" lies two hours north of Los Angeles, beyond the strip malls and superstores of Bakersfield population 267,000 and growing. Streets are named Standard, Gulf, Getty and Shell; nearby towns are called Oildale and Oil City. The Bakersfield . Evaluations Continued from El especially want feedback. "They're just conditioned to multitasking and getting instant feedback," said Branham, who has written books including "The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave." Providing feedback and evaluations isn't just for the sake of employees; it's likely to help your business run better. "Employees want to be good at their jobs," said Amy DelPo, who has worked as a labor law books attorney and including "Dealing with Problem Employees." "If you can foster that desire, you'll see a lot of good come out of that." It's also true that employers should give feedback and evaluations to protect themselves millennials legally. "It's a good idea to have a record of how your employees are doing so you can justify the decisions you make in the workplace," including promo- tions and dismissals, DelPo said. But, she said, focusing on the positive, providing feedback and evaluations means "you're going to head off a lot of em- before they Eloyment problems Both Branham and DelPo ad- -. High mascot: The Driller. "Once a driller, always a driller," boasts the school's Web site. Forty years after gold lured prospectors to the valley in the a hand-dupit that gurgled black gold on the western bank of the Kern River ushered in a new era. Forests of wooden derricks and instant communities sprang up along a swath that, according to the Kern County Museum, would produce more wealth from oil than all the West's gold mines. Output from the Kern River field soon accounted for 7 out of every 10 barrels of oil coming from California, which by 1903 had become the nation's state, industop try experts say. When the first gushers blew, thousands of oil companies were incorporated in just a few days. The number of independents in Kern County has dwindled to around 225 companies, according to Les Clark of the Independent Oil Producers' about 100 fewer Agency than just 20 years ago. "We've been tapping into the since the gushearth ers of the early 1900s," said Ron Bracken, an independent oil producer in the nearby town of Taft. "Nothing lasts forever." New oil field discoveries are uncommon; one was located several years ago, but the last big finds were in the 1980s. Now, of the top 15 fastest-growin- g occupations in Kern County, only one is directly related to oil, according to Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce statistics. Local officials say the new economy has arrived, that service jobs will let Bakersfield smooth out the cyclical economy. The hot jobs: information technology, corrections officers or human services workers. For big producers in Kern County, expensive technology is extending the life of the oil patch. Independent producers who don't have such deep pockets say they can't afford to keep relying on a fading resource. Oil has been in the Holmes family's blood since 1923, when Bruce Holmes' grandfather moved here hoping to tap a gusher. Holmes expects he'll be the last to work the family business, to love the bitter smell of crude, to fall asleep to the clamor of an active oilfield. "It's everything I ever had," he says. "It's all gonna die with vise business owners to look at the evaluation process as two-wa- y communication, not just an ' employer passing judgment on an atmosphere that a worker is as uncomfortable for the boss as it is for the worker. "You also can get information from employees about the workplace and make things work better," said DelPo, whose book includes a section on performance evaluations. Giving feedback and putting a performance evaluation together can be unfamiliar territory for a new entrepreneur, especially one who hasn't supervised employees in the past. There's help for these owners, including books that deal entirely with feedback and evalua- tions. Branham has two recommendations: "Abolishing Perfor- mance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What to Do Instead," by Tom Coens and Mary Jenkins; and "Coaching for Im-roved Work Performance, by ?erdinand F. Fournies. If you work with a human resources consultant, that's a natural resource. Another, and free, avenue of help can be the retired executives at SCORE, who give advice on a variety of topics including employee relations. You can reach a SCORE counselor through the organization's Web site, www.score.org. You also might want to take advantage of basic management courses offered at local colleges or Small Business Development Centers. SBDCs, which are sponsored by the Small Business Administration, can be located at www.sba.govsbdc. But there are some basics to keep in mind. Feedback and evaluations should be about goals, and how to help an employee attain them. This will help keep you focused oh running your business welL "It's not just about rating (an employee)," Branham said. "It's about planning what they're going to do for the next year." In addition to continual feedback, Branham suggests quarterly sit downs with employees. Doing it less often means that important information can become outdated. He again advises open communication as you set goals. "You get the employee's perspective, you give your perspective, merge them and come up with an action plan," he said. And keep the atmosphere as positive as you can DelPo suggests encouraging workers when they're on track to meeting their goals, and seeing what help you can offer them if they're falling short of your mid-1800- s, g full-bor- e me." I |