COLE'S NEWSWIRE, Dec. 20, 2000

Dec. 20, 2000
Vol. 6, No. 43

COLE'S NEWSWIRE is a weekly distribution of information about the sales and installations of publishing technology and the latest news on new products developed by suppliers to the industry.

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ADSTAR.COM
Rentals.com, providers of on-line residential rental management services, has signed a distribution agreement with this Marina Del Rey, Calif.-based company to provide property owners and managers, who use Rentals.com, with Advertise123.com's web-based newspaper classified-ad placement services.

As part of the agreement, AdStar.com has created a co-branded version of the Advertise123.com classified-ad sales channel that is integrated into Rentals.com's web site. The agreement allows property owners and managers using Rentals.com to directly place classified ads on-line through Advertise123.com.

AdStar is on the Web at http://www.adstar.com/, while Rentals, based in Redwood City, Calif., is located at http://www.rentals.com/.

CCI EUROPE
Germany's SUDKURIER (150k) of Konstanz, has selected the Danish company 's NewsDesk BaseLine as the newspaper's new editorial system. With live production scheduled for spring of 2001, a total of nearly 290 editorial users will be using CCI NewsDesk BaseLine to produce the papers, replacing and editorial system from Cicero.

The new CCI system installation will result in a new multimedia newsroom environment. Combined with the media-neutral format of the CCI NewsDesk Database, the editorial tools from CCI will support the needs for media-specific content editing and provide the ability to repurpose and prepurpose content across media. The German paper will also be using CCI's web-based reporter tool, CCI WebAccess, which includes interactive access to the CCI System via the Internet.

SUDKURIER, which is part of the Verlagsgruppe Holzbrink group of Stuttgart, publishes a daily broadsheet with 17 regional editions, two weekend supplements and a weekly freesheet in six regional editions.

CCI is on the Web at http://www.ccieurope.com/.

GEAC PUBLISHING SYSTEMS
Headquartered in Tampa, Fla., this software company has announced an agreement with Independent Newspapers Ltd. (INL) of Australia to provide editorial, advertising, pagination, accounting and output capabilities to the WIMMERA TIMES-MAIL in Horsham, Victoria, by utilizing a wide area network (WAN) connecting the location with an existing Genesis II system installed at the BENDIGO ADVERTISER, also in Victoria.

Both sites will operate a CyberOPI Server with replication software, allowing the two publications to have the ability to feed local content, including composed advertisements and images, from one site to the other.

Geac is on the Web at http://www.publishingsystems.geac.com/.

HARRIS PUBLISHING SYSTEMS CORP.
This Melbourne, Fla.-based provider of multimedia publishing tools has signed an agreement with Affinity Logic Systems Inc. of Orlando, Fla., to co-develop a new Internet classified-advertising product for their customers.

The new product and service will allow publishers to use legacy systems to sell classified ads that can now be published to their own searchable and branded web site. The on-line ad service will use Affinity's artificial intelligence-based fuzzy logic search, which can weigh desired price against features and location to find, rate, rank and score the results.

Harris is on the Web at http://www.harris.com/hpsc/, while Affinity is located at http://www.affinitylogic.com/.

PRESSTEK INC.
Several announcements have recently been made by this Hudson, N.H.-based developer of digital imaging and printing plate technologies. Xerox Corp. has announced the signing of an agreement to have Presstek provide a series of three models of digital presses and related consumables, which Xerox will market, distribute and service worldwide on a co-branded basis. Products included in the agreement are four- and five-color versions of a B3 size sheet-fed press, which Xerox will market as the DocuColor 400 DI-4 and DI-5, and an A3 size four-color sheet-fed press, which will be marketed as the DocuColor 233 DI.

Presstek has also released Dimension400 CTP (Computer-to-Plate) System for commercial sale with its new Anthem thermal plate. The Dimension, featuring Presstek's ProFire imaging technology, brings reliability and lower cost of ownership to the CTP market. AmPrint Inc. of Holliston, Mass., is one of the first customers to implement the new system with Anthem, along with Perfection Press of Logan, Iowa, and Mahaffey's Quality Printing of Jackson, Miss.

Third, Presstek has named VIP Offset & Graphic Arts Supplies & Equipment Inc. as a distributor for its new CTP pre-press products to customers primarily in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Among the products that will be represented by VIP are the Dimension Series CTP Systems with Anthem thermal plates.

Presstek is on the Web at http://www.presstek.com/.

THE SOFTWARE CONSTRUCTION CO.
Based in Atlanta, Ga., this company has announced the sale and installation of its MediaServer Production and Archive database system at the IRISH EXAMINER (60K), Cork, Republic of Ireland. Additionally, the system has been installed at LE JOURNAL DE QUEBEC in Canada (120k).

The IRISH EXAMINER has used Software Construction Co.'s (SCC) PhotoFactory and SCC PhotoGrid software to manage wire and staff photography -- the installation of SCC MediaServer provides editorial staff access to both production and archive libraries for photos, graphics and text. The installation offers access to 60 concurrent MediaGrid and web-browser users on both Windows and Macintosh workstations and includes SCC's Photo Assignment, Automate Delivery and MS Word integration modules. The system also includes a new feature in MediaFactory, which allows the high-resolution cropping of photos already marked with soft crop information from SCC MediaGrid.

At the Quebec paper, the SCC MediaServer system serves as a central database for text, photos and graphics from five incoming wire services as well as staff photos, graphics and complete newspaper pages. This sale marks SCC's first Canadian installation and also the first to incorporate Verity's French language module.

SCC is on the Web at http://www.swcc.com/.

X-RITE INC.
The Grandville, Mich.-based providers of technology that measure color and light have signed an agreement with CreoScitex, a division of Creo Products Inc., in which CreoScitex receives rights to bundle X-Rite measurement equipment with the CreoScitex Iris contract proofing system.

Further expanding the relationship between the two companies, the agreement will provide CreoScitex with the ability to enhance color management capabilities of its Iris Contract Proofing System using X-Rite's DTP41 autoscan spectrophotometer technology.

X-Rite has also announced that the first of its new suite of ink formulation systems were scheduled to ship fall. The new versions of both Ink-Master and QuickInk share X-Rite technology underpinnings, and support two synergistic technologies recently introduced to the printing industry.

Lastly, X-Rite customers are now able to purchase Color Tools That Work directly from the company via its new on-line store located at http://www.store.x-rite.com/.

X-Rite is on the Web at http://www.x-rite.com/.

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COLE'S NEWSWIRE is compiled by Aimee Beck and distributed by The Cole Group, publishers of THE COLE PAPERS, COLE'S NOTES and NEWSINC., and consultants to newspapers and magazines worldwide. To receive more information about The Cole Group, send e-mail to: info@colegroup.com.

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