Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1960)

added, "it < an onlj case the buyer's job — not take it over — and should actuall) give him a more professional Btatus." \\ bat consequences will the beast bave on the ad business? Industry opinion volunteered to sponsor runs on parallel tracks, all of which lead to a more professional handling of the details of the business: • Mechanization ( or, when systematized, automation i will not think, but will leave the media buyer free to think while it handles a multitude of clerical details both before and after the buy. • Mechanization, by simplifying paperwork, will no doubt make spot more attractive to timebuyers who at present avoid the medium because of the many complications involved. • Mechanization may be the cure to some of the old ulcers of the business caused by its inability to shake off archaic practices, such as the billing bugaboo. The how is explained by Young & Rubicam, Inc., which this spring com , WW LP, Springfield: what mechanization accomplishes at the local station level "TO KEEP ABREAST of the continuous flow of forms, schedules and other material of prime importance to a television station," WWLP, Springfield, Mass., has installed a Remington Rand Univac machine. According to William L. Putnam, president and general manager, "The Univac's importance is not merely in holding down personnel costs. Actually, it replaces only one employee in six, but the saving in work hours and the increase in operating efficiency is enormous." Putnam noted that the station log alone, which can take anywhere from three to four hours and occupy four or five people, can now be produced in a matter of minutes. Also, much of the billing that used to take the bookkeeping department two to three days can now be done in a couple of hours. WWLP is using the equipment for its traffic, billing, and payroll. "Speed plus the elimination of human errors makes the use of the equipment well worth the rental fee," Putnam said. pleted installation of a Remington Rand Univac computing system in its New York offices. "Strangely enough, this mechanized mammoth . . . can do no more than add one and one, but it does it in a millionth of a second. In minutes, millions of one-plus-one additions come to complex answers in subtraction, multiplication, and division, as well as addition." Univac can read ("information fed into it by other units" l and write ("answers onto paper through a high-speed printer, onto punched tape or cards, or magnetic tape"). "It can do complex arithmetic. It compares data and checks itself for accuracy: makes yes or no choices among offered data. The other 16 units in the system are also highly complex, but their simple purposes are to feed data into the computer, to store raw data in a variety of ways until it's needed again, and to record the completed information as it comes from the computer. "In one minute, Univac can do 20,000 additions or subtractions. In one minute, its magnetic tape can absorb over 240,000 digits. In one minute, its magnetic drum can hold until wanted 1,050.000 alphabetical or numeric characters." To the timebuyer. mechanization means a revolutionizing of his job. Now, most of his time is spent on the least important duties connected with buying. Mechanization will free him from these drudgeries. "Univac can't think for the buyer, and is not here to replace him." said Richard Campman. manager of \ &R's media department. "Its important use will be to relieve the media department of the need to prepare insertion orders: it also will relieve it in the area of spot and newspaper estimates and preparation of spot and print contracts. "Eventually," he predicted, "we will be able to turn over to the buyer a selection sheet of facts and figures on what has been done previously in certain areas or markets. Machines will save him a great deal of spadework. highlighting bargains and rate discounts, for one example." More specifically, Ki^Es William Salkind pointed out that "the computer can bring together all of the facts that apply to any media situation. Then the people who have to 3 OCTOBER 1960