Nando - Nando Times

Nando Times

In 1994 Nando.net added a Web server and a Mosaic-compatible website front end, and the NandO Times was born—one of the first updated-around-the-clock news and sports websites. Nando invented its own model of how newspapers could handle online production, news, sales and help desks while developing new online products.

At first, News & Observer copy desk staff (called sub-editors in the UK) fed stories to the Nando Times from the newspaper's main newsroom, using aging SII newswire editing terminals to add intermediate mark-up codes for further processing into HTML. Nando developers figured out how to semi-automate newswire story conversion and posting of news photos to the site, including an early Java-powered animated photo display, although the photos were never fully integrated with related stories.

Shortly before the Daniels family sold the News & Observer company to the McClatchy newspaper chain, Nando and the online News & Observer became separate operations and Nando editors moved into a separate building. Seth Effron became Nando's executive editor, Zonker Harris was the managing editor, Mike Emmett, who had a long career as a writer and editor with several of the U.S.'s largest dailies, was the sports editor, while Bruce Siceloff headed the NewsObserver.com staff. Michael Carmean, who had headed the copydesk staff, departed. Other early Nando personnel included Charles S. Powell (the "Evangelist"), Beth Ames, Fraser Van Asch, Lisa Pignetti, Gene Wang, Kirk House, Ari Spanos, Alfred Filler, Denise Long, Joe Sterling, Joyce Garcia, Dawn Harris and Sam Barnes. Barnes sometimes worked from the office of the N&O-owned Chapel Hill News, inspiring Bob Stepno, a Nando part-timer and University of North Carolina journalism doctoral student, to move his weekend morning shift there. In 2000, Schlukbier and Total Sports parted ways. Also leaving were Emmett and Harris, who both went to Miami to work for Terra.com, the world's largest Hispanic Web site. Emmett moved onto to Time Warner/CNN as managing editor of NASCAR.com, then Greenville Online as assistant editor and finally, before retiring, Media General's Western Carolina Regional Manager. Harris continues to work for the Daniels family and is based in Cary, N.C.

Services Nando provided in 1994:

• Classifieds
• International News
• National News
• Regional and Local News
• Sports
• Business
• Lifestyle
• Interactive Websites for Valentine's Day and most major holidays.
• Games, including Mutants and Hangman.
• Chats
• ISP service including the first “Nando Doctor,” Kirk House. House made "House calls" to help users setup the dial-up service.
• Help Desk
• NIE ("Newspapers In Education") programs- NandOLand, free access to the internet for schools

After the McClatchy merger, Nando New Media evolved into McClatchy New Media, with the output of the Nando newsroom channelled to the "24 Hour News" section of all McClatchy newspapers' websites.