Manager Vice President

John W. Iobst

***** ******** *****

Fairfax, Virginia 22030

*** / *** - **** (day)

*** / *** - **** (evening)

john.iobst@earthlink. net

Introduction This résumé covers over thirty-three years of service with NAA and ANPA. During this time, increasing levels of responsibility have been undertaken.

Experience

1977 – 2009 Newspaper Association of American (NAA)

Formerly American Newspaper Publishers Association (ANPA)

2000 – 2009 Vice President / Newspaper Operations and Research

My current duties are primarily on the development of standards for newspaper operations. These include the three prong effort of xml for news, xml for advertising, and xml for operations. I just completed my third term as Chair of the International Press Telecommunications Council. There I have led the effort to develop standards for news content. Information coded in these formats will be used in all facets of news content management. I served as both Chair and Vice Chair (alternate years) of the AdsML Consortium a helping to lead a multi-year effort to develop standards for e-commerce for the exchange of advertising business documents and content. I am also worked on restarting an effort to develop production operations standards for newspapers within the CIP4 community.

I worked on various ANSI and ISO committees developing standards for the information industry. These included U.S. Standards for printing under ANSI CGATS and B.65 and its ISO international partner. The PDF family of standards under ANSI PDF and ISO TC-171. I was a member of ANSI X3V1 developing languages including the U.S. group on SGML and the standardized page description language based on Adobe PostScript. I was an invited expert for the development of the xml language.

I spend a considerable amount of time over the last 20 years doing international travel during the development of both industry and ISO standards. I have significant experience leading groups of individuals from diverse backgrounds to successfully achieve common goals.

I worked with various teams on industry business development. This included not only technical issues but also using the business acumen that I have developed.

Position eliminated November 2009.

2000 – 2003 Vice President / Newspaper Operations and Research

In addition to the duties outlined below for the technical research activities, I am also responsible for the Newspaper Operations Staff and their direct work assignments. This includes the technical research projects, conference preparation and speaker acquisition for SuperConference and the Newsprint Conference, technical training and seminars, and member consulting.

1998 – 2000 Vice President / Technical Research

Responsible for all NAA Technology Research projects. This includes working with NAA staff and contractors to ensure that projects are completed in a timely fashion and within budget constraints.

Worked with the NAA Classified Advertising Department and a task force of NAA newspaper members and vendors to develop an XML-based classified advertising exchange standard that is currently being implemented by newspapers, advertising agencies, and major internet classified advertising aggregators and net searchers. I did all of the xml development for a dtd and schema for a classified advertising distribution and markup language.

Worked with a committee of NAA member newspapers and staff to develop a report on the effect of the reduction in web width on page image size and page layout. Results of the report were presented at the Fall 1999 NAA Board of Directors meeting.

Work with the Senior Vice President for Technology to develop work plans and budgets for NAA Technology Department.

Continue to participate in the development of ISO, ANSI, and industry standards for the graphic arts and newspaper industries.

Participate in the work of the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) as chair of the Standards Committee in addition to remaining on the IPTC Management Committee.

1991 – 1998 Director / Advanced Computer Science

Responsible for conceiving and developing forward thinking applications of computer science and technology as applied to the printing and publishing industries in general and newspapers specifically. Present areas of application research include use of EDI X12 protocols for advertising sales, ordering, billing, payment, and advertising materials delivery and management. Also studied the use of large relational databases for newspaper advertising, marketing, circulation, and production support.

Participate in the work of the IPTC and serve as a member of the IPTC Management Committee as a Vice-Chairman. IPTC work includes activities as the principle developer of the new XML-based standard for the exchange of news information.

1983 - 1991 Research Manager / Computer Applications

Responsible for research and development of computer-based systems. Managed and directed a staff that ranged from three to ten individuals. Projects included office automation, electronic photography, direct imaging, and manufacturing control. Responsible for operation and maintenance of satellite receiving system.

Principal party in the specification, acquisition, installation, and maintenance of several computer systems, a telephone system, and multiple data networks for ANPA. Installed company-wide desktop computer system for office use and electronic publishing.

Visited numerous newspapers, as a consultant, and evaluated computer and other systems. Multi-year plans and major purchases by member newspapers were based on recommendations.

Participated in the development of both American and industry standards. The American Nationals Standards work included programming languages, specifically Pascal, office systems, specifically the standardized page description language (SPDL), and the development of image technology standards for the exchange and distribution of information between color electronic pre-press systems. Programming language development also involved participating in the selection process for the DOD standard programming language Ada.

Industry standards included the ongoing development of guidelines and standards for the transmission of news text, tables, and photographic information, guidelines for the transmission and entry of classified advertising information, and the transmission of newsprint manifest information. Developed standards for manufacturing automation to support inter-computer transfer of packaging and distribution information for the post-press area of the newspaper production facility.

Industry standards activity also involved participation in the Committee for Graphic Arts Technical Standards. Standards work also includes supplying information that was used in the development of international, ISO and CCITT, standards.

Managed the Management Information Systems department in addition to Computer Research for eighteen months. Responsible for the installation of and training on a new AT&T System 75 telephone system for all of ANPA, an AT&T data network, and an ATEX editorial system for presstime® magazine.

Managed Chemistry and Newsprint Testing Departments for eighteen months. Chemistry Department was responsible for chemical testing of inks and other fluids used in daily newspaper operations. The department also developed specialty tests to deal with the determination of volatile organic carbon (VOC) compounds, a major potential pollution area for newspapers. Newsprint Testing Department was responsible for the establishment and maintenance of physical standards for newsprint. The department also performed testing of a representative sample of manufactured newsprint to verify vendor performance.

1984 - 1987 I.T. Manager

Managed the ANPA internal computer department (functionally the CIO). Transitioned the association from a mainframe HP environment to a PC and Macintosh network with servers. Also moved the research group from DEC Vax to Macintosh and PC. Installed and maintained a high-end publishing and typesetting system that was eventually moved to a Macintosh network.

1977 - 1983 Programmer / Analyst

Involved in the development of computer applications targeted for the newspaper industry in North America. Major applications included a spelling checker (1977), display advertising layout system (1979), and a text archival system (1981). Other projects included database application design and implementation and machine control. Responsible for all hardware and software maintenance. Installed operating systems and other systems software.

1980 - 1981 Northampton County Area Community College

Instructor

Taught introductory and intermediate programming along with an introduction to computer operating systems and text editing. Responsible for lesson plans, teaching, preparing, administering and grading examinations, laboratories, and preparation of final grades. Courses used Pascal as the primary programming language. Other languages were used for comparison purposes during lectures. Proper programming techniques were taught using data structures and top-down program construction. File handling, sorting, searching, and character and record processing were taught. Instruction in the use of the UNIX operating system was also part of the course.

Education

1988 Ph.D. Computer and Information Science

Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Dissertation Topic

Pascal DB: A Database Implementation of Pascal

Education mostly self-funded with some employer assistance.

1979 M.S. Computer Science

Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Thesis Topic

An Implementation of the Programming Language Modula

Research Assistant on a grant from the American Iron and Steel Institute, remaining expenses self-funded.

1975 B.S. Chemistry

Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Senior Research

Substitution of 2,4-Diphenyl Acrylonitriles

Professional Interests

Memberships

Association of Computing Machinery, since 1979.

Research Areas

Mathematical modeling and simulation, neural networks, and artificial intelligence.

Hold valid U.S. Passport

Have to travelled extensively in Canada, Europe and Asia on business. Have also been to Africa, Australia, the Caribbean, and South America.

Speeches

Presentations to various industry groups and meetings including Nexpo, World Association of Newspapers (FIEJ/WAN), Institute of Newspaper Financial Executives (INFE), and other newspaper affiliated groups. Have also presented to outside groups including IBM and Digital Equipment Corp. on topics related to NAA research activities and general computing topics.

Other Interests

Music, art, touring, reading, and history

References

References available upon request.

Contact this candidate