Working with dinosaurs

May 27, 1998
Issue 

The production team at Green Left Weekly are always looking for new ways to improve the look and content of the paper. Over the years, this has meant having to learn new computer programs and desktop publishing techniques.

Green Left Weekly has also upgraded its computer equipment and purchased new printers and scanners. With the shoestring budget the paper operates on, however, it often means choosing between equipment that is desperately needed and equipment that we can just get by without.

Recently, one of the journalists inquired about fixing our transcribing machine. When she took it to a technician, apart from being intrigued by the cannibalised parts used to keep it running, he could not believe that someone was still using that model. "Hey, come and have a look at this old dinosaur", he called out in disbelief to his workmates.

The parts for this machine are not available any more. Given the large number of interviews Green Left Weekly does, a new transcribing machine to replace the "dinosaur" is vital. A decent replacement will cost around $700, an expense which Green Left Weekly would find hard to cover even at the best of times.

Green Left Weekly does not have wealthy benefactors flush with a few spare thousand to help us out. Unlike those who work for Kerry Packer's media empire (Packer's personal wealth grew by $3.5 million a day over 1997), the staff at Green Left Weekly are ever mindful that when a computer monitor goes "ping" or the photocopier groans to a halt, a replacement or repair may be some time coming.

Green Left Weekly is financed entirely through the hard work and generosity of supporters who value an alternative, courageous and independent news source. It's a news source which presents the facts and analyses on the political and social events that affect our lives — far different from the mush that Packer and his ilk dish up to us each day.

A contribution to the Green Left Weekly fighting fund will help ensure that we can purchase a new transcriber and other much needed equipment. Every donation received is highly valued, no matter how little, because it can and does make a difference.

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