DISSEMINATION OF FBIS MATERIAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP94-00798R000200140023-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 19, 2012
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: January 17, 1979
• Content Type: MEMO

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MIORANDU
SUBJECT
17 January 1979
OR: Deputy Director, Foreign Broadcast Information
Service
: Dissemination of FBIS Material
1. As a result of your 6 November memorandum, EPS
created a task force to exasdne menus of forwarding current
information to consumers." You later indicated that you would
like the task force to move beyond this narrow aim te examine
DAILY REPORT publication, including staffing, editing, and
currency of content. The task force in three meetings
developed the following reccemmodations responsive to your
requests; the recosiaendations are treated in greater detail
in subsequent paragraphs.
A greater conscious effort by all involved must
be made to speed publication of material by JPRS.
This can be accomplished by streamlining the flow
of material from DRD editors through area divi-
sion linguists to JPRS and by stepping up the
frequency of publications, where appropriate.
Greater use should be mule of the DAILY REPORT
Supplement to publish material on a more current
basis.
By may of a negative recommendation, the task
force recommends that issue-oriented publications,
particularly to the extent they are composed of
reprinted material, not be utilized as vehicles
for forwarding more current information to con-
sumers. The resource investment is high for
what is a presumed limited clientele, and a less
expensive alternative (an index on selected
issues, such as nuclear proliferation) may be
suitable. The CCPC, with NFIB endorsement, has
recommendal that PSIS produce a fUnctionally
oriented serial on nuclear proliferation, a
recommendation in which the task force does not
concur but which does require a response.
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- Operations Group and the Daily Reporting
Division should develop up-to-date proposals
on DRI) structure and procedures, taking into
account outside consultant recommendations and
plans for automation.
2. or JPRS The members of the task
force share your concern over in publication of field
copy in JPRS serials. They feel it is incumbent upon the Daily
Reporting Division and Production Group to ensure that every
effort is made to speed the publication of material by JPRS;
in short, there must be a sense of urgency instilled. To this
end, all DW branches should forward discarded but publishable
material to Production Group linguists on a regular basis, not
less than two times a week. There have been instances when
material has been held in the DAILY REPORT for more than two
weeks; with this delay there is an excessive lag (extending
beyond the 10-15 day average you note) before publication.
Production Group linguists in turn should forward material to
JPRS at least twice a week; linguists on leave or in training
should designate another linguist to screen material in their
absence. Finally, JPRS management should focus on the frequency
of publication of each serial to ensure that material, both
that passed from the DAILY REPORT and that %%Mich originates
in Production Group, not remain within JPRS for an undue period;
timeliness should not be neglected merely to produce serials
complying with arbitrary minimum page limitations. It is
understood that more resources may be required (part-time man-
power, funds for replacement or repair of equipment, for
example) to meet the demand for stepped-up publication. JPRS
management should also be aware of the possible need and
desirability for wider distribution of its special issuances,
consulting with LRB on potential consumers. It was agreed
that the AG review of DAILY REPORT discards (on China, Vietnam,
and Korea) is essential and does not create a bottleneck as
it is normally reviewed and passed an in an hour.
3. Greater use of DAILY REPORT Supplement: In the
second of its three meetings, the task Temp had considered
the idea of a ninth DAILY REPORT (overflow pages to be printed
at the JPRS facility but under a DAILY REPORT cover) or a
periodic JPRS publication composed of discarded nAny REPORT
material. We concluded that either approach would be a
logistical headache and would make for poor packaging.
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4. Yet there is an existing vehicle within PITS, the
DAILY REPORT Supplement, which appears to provide the means
of getting information into the hands of consumers quickly.
(Over the past two years, the Supplement has fallen into
virtual disuse: in 1978 we published five totaling 227 pages
and in 1977 13 totaling 739 pages; by contrast, we published
52 Supplements totaling 3,294 pages in 197( and 20 totaling
1,114 pages in 1975. The 52 Supplements in 1976 are a bit
misleading in that a considerable number were devoted to the
25th CPSU Congress.) The material for a Supplement, of
course, must be related to an event or an important
development?the establishment of U.S.-PRC ties or the Camp
David summit, for example. With the press of deadlines for
the DAILY REPORT, an 88 page limit for individual DAILY
REPORTs, or staffing shortages on a given day, it may? not be
possible to publish Important material when it is received.
The alternative is to hold it for a subsequent 'DAILY REPORT
or pass it on to JPRS for publication. A third alternative,
of course, assuming the material is cohesive, is the issuance
of a Supplement. The major advantage of the Supplement is
its speed: Items will normally be in the hands of the consumer
within a week, in many cases halving the time of JPRS publica-
tion. Naterial for a Supplement need not meet the tight
DA/LY REPORT deadline and it can be edited, typed, and proof-
read at a more leisurely pace, thus making it easier to ensure
reliable quality control.
5. Issue-oriented yublications: The task force urges
the Management Committee to address itself at an early date
to the problem of an issue-oriented publication. As you note
in your 6 !iovember memorandum, there is pressure to develop
such a vehicle; the CCPC, for example, has asked that a
serial on nuclear proliferation (along the lines of TRANSLA-
TIONS ON NARCOTICS AND DANGEROUS DRUGS) be published, and
this request has been endorsed by NFIB. The request was on
the Management Committee agenda for 2 4ovember but is never
discussed.
b. In considering the problem, the task force concluded,
as did a 1977 task team, that an issue-oriented publication
should not appear as a DAILY REPORT volume. It would repre-
sent a ninth DAILY REPORT volume, for which P4PD is not
geared. JPRS might be able to handle the additional DAILY
REPORT volume, but only the investment of additional
resources (five part-timers and a staff supervisorymmning
one-half a shift, with annual salary costs of nearly $42)
and arrangements would have to be made for distribution of the
--,?,
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volume through P&PD to NTIS. The volume would be composed
in large part of material taken from the geographic DAILY
REPORTs and would thus represent little more than a cooren-
ient repackaging for a fey select consumers. The resource
investment does not appear worthwhile. Although not without
resource implications, an alternative might be a monthly or
quarterly index of DAILY REPORT and JPRS material treating
such selected issues as nuclear proliferation.
7. The task force also examined the feasibility of a
JPRS serial, along the lines of TNDD, to meet the cell for
an issue-oriented publication. While concluding that this
is a more reasonable approach than an issue-oriented DAILY
REPORT, the task force felt nonetheless the introduction of
an additional serial was not advisable. The chief concern
is that a serial an nuclear proliferation would be composed
in large part of tutorials gleaned fro, the DAILY REPORT.
crum, the model cited by the CCPC in its request for an
issue-oriented publication, is node up of only five percent
reprints from the DAILY REPORT; but other serials treating
global issues contain more reprint material, with that on
law of the sea being composed of 40 to 50 percent reprints).
Resource implications weighed heavily in the task force's
conclusion: As a benchmark, it has been determined that, even
without translation and editing costs, the publication of a
serial once a week of 100 pages and distributed in 500 copies
would cost approximately $20K a year. Thus, SS with an issue-
oriented DAILY REPORT, the resource investment to satisfy
the needs of a presumed limited clientele appears not to be
worthwhile.
8. In short, the task force is not enthusiastic about
developing issue-oriented publications. It feels, however,
that the Management Gonaittee should examine the problem in
the light of the task force's recommendations in order to
formalize the BIS policy before responding to the CCPC
proposal.
9. MD structure and procedures: The task force has
developed some tentative recommendations for changes in the
DRD structure but ultimately, it feels, a thorough study on
structure and procedures should be conducted by DRI) and
Operations (roup, with an early completion date. This study
should address specifically but not exclusively the questions
of whether there is over-editing; whether DRD procedures can
be streamlined to involve fewer people; whether Wire editors
can do LAXLY PlICST selection; whether non-current material
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L a. UNLY
is appearing in the DAILY REPORT volumes; and whether current
material is appearing in JPRS which should have been carried
in the DAILY REPORT. Chief, Operations Group is seeking out-
side expertise to examine the editing process, and LRE will
soon be circulating a questionnaire to consumers to elicit
their views on, among other things, the currency of material
appearing in the DAILY REPORT. Thus the task force feels
that any recommendations from it on DAILY REPORT procedures
and content would be premature. Moreover, the DRD itself in
the past has examined various options for streamlining the
operation. Amore current study, coupled with the findings of
the outside consultant and the results of the questionnaire,
should provide guidance for planning purposes in FY 1981 and
beyond.
10. The recommendations raised by the task force for
DRD and Operations Group consideration and which might be
implemented at any time include the establishment of a senior
editorial position--a managing editor, in effect?responsible
for overseeing quality control of all DAILY REPORT copy, and
the designating of one position in each branch as a non-
rotating position to provide continuity and area expertise.
The first suggestion, of course, involves a willingness to
provide a slot from within the present DRD T/0. The second
suggestion will require a re-examination of our policy on
rotations: Are we willing to permit four editors, at the
GS-I2 level presumably, to withdraw from rotation?
11. Other points were made by the task force which may
be of interest to any future studies of DRD procedures:
- Branch and book chiefs as a result of short
staffing spend far too much time as editors
and not nearly enough time training new editors,
reviewing copy editing and selection, and over-
seeing the organization of the books and feedback
to the field.
- Aut.:motion of the LILY REPORT would free us from
the constraints Imposed by shortages of typists,
which translate into fewer pages and less timely
service to cousumers. But unless we provide for
an adequate editorial staff, the shortage in
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AL)IVIHNICd RC. ? ;IL U6t. UNLY
editors will leave us incapable of fully
exploiting the advantages offered by automa-
tion. If properly utilised, automation should
enable us regularly to publish DAILY REPORT*
with INXiMUIR numbers of pages.
- One way of getting more current material to
consumers more quickly would be a minor
reorganization of the present DAILY REPORT
configuration. Combining North Africa with
Sub-Sahara Africa, which never comes close
to its page ceiling, would make more pages
available for the blue book (Middle East),
if necessary. There may be other options
along these lines that would improve our
ability to move UOTO copy more quickly, but
the task force believes such issues Should
be addressed in the DRD and Operations Group
study.
Other Task Force Members:
Distribution:
Orig. - Addressee
1 - EPS Chrono
1 - P(RA
1 - Each Task Force )%mber
17 Jan 79
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