COLE'S NEWSWIRE, Feb. 28, 2001

Feb. 28, 2001
Vol. 7, No. 9

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 INC.
This Marina Del Rey, Calif.-based company has reached an agreement with Paulson Capital Corp. to satisfy the $1.1-million note held by Paulson through issuance of AdStar common stock. Under the agreement, AdStar will issue 593,000 shares of restricted common stock in full payment of $1,186,000 in principle and accrued interest.

Additionally, AdStar.com has signed an agreement to provide on-line classified-ad placement services for New York City's weekly VILLAGE VOICE (250k). As part of the agreement, AdStar.com will create a private label version of its Advertise123.com sales channel to be integrated into http://www.villagevoice.com/.

AdStar is on the Web at http://www.adstar.com/.

ATEX MEDIA SOLUTIONS
This Bedford, Mass.-based supplier of digital advertising and content management solutions to media companies worldwide has entered into a partnership with InfiNet, the Norfolk, Va.-based applications service provider (ASP) for on-line publishing tools.

InfiNet will offer Atex's web-publishing system, PrestigeWeb, to its more than 300 on-line newspaper and publishing affiliate customers as well as future prospects. PrestigeWeb requires no special HTML coding to build pages, and allows editors to take news content from any of their print publications and repurpose it on the Web. InfiNet offers a wide range of products specifically designed for on-line publishing, such as e-commerce, auction software, ad-management tools and site-building products.

Atex is on the Web at http://www.atex.com/, while InfiNet is located at http://www.infinet.com/.

AUTOLOGIC INFORMATION INTERNATIONAL INC.
This Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based supplier of pre-press automation equipment said that it had obtained these new orders recently:

-- At California's SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS (287k), an APS 3850 SST Wide Color Imager and Image Controller.

-- At Florida's VERO BEACH PRESS JOURNAL (30k), an APS 3850 Sierra Turbo Color Imager and GRAFIX Raster Image Processor (RIP).

-- At Georgia's ALBANY HERALD (30k), an APS Output Manager NT Workflow System and two APS GRAFIX RIPs.

-- At the Hawaii Newspaper Agency, an APS 3850 Sierra Color Imager and APS GRAFIX RIP.

-- At the MISSISSIPPI PRESS in Pascagoula (20k), an APS 3850 Color Imager and APS GRAFIX RIP.

Autologic is on the Web at http://www.autologic.com/.

BASEVIEW PRODUCTS INC.
Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., this company has upgraded several editorial products, including NewsEditPro IQue.

Now at version 3.3, it has added ability to drag a photo into a story for use with Baseview's LiveIQue 2 for web publishing, which means no HTML or formatting. Other features included in the new version are: the ability to sort search results by Publication Date; the ability to open Rich Text Format (RTF) documents through the Baseview Translation System; more PDF (Portable Document File) functionality, including an icon representing PDFs that shows up in directories, and the ability to open PDFs from within the database.

Baseview is on the Web at http://www.baseview.com/.

BITSTREAM INC.
This Cambridge, Mass.-based company has entered into agreement with Sony Visual Entertainment Europe to license TrueDoc, Bitstream's font rendering engine. Sony will incorporate TrueDoc in its MHP digital platforms, including digital TV products.

TrueDoc is a font scaler and rasteriser that works with applications and devices that have limited memory and processing power. The system reads and renders the same compact font format for both embedded and downloaded fonts, and can combine embedded fonts and downloaded font fragments.

Bitstream is on the Web at http://www.bitstream.com/, while Sony Europe is located at http://www.sony-europe.com/.

COMPETENT TECHNOLOGIES INC.
Effective last fall, Competent Consulting has become Competent Technologies Inc. (CTI) of Wilton, Calif.

In conjunction with the incorporation, CTI has expanded its responsibilities for FaxAction, a product that was originally developed by Competent Consulting in 1996 as a joint venture with NOVA Publishing Products of Auburn, Calif.

This change allows for enhanced support of FaxAction -- a toll-free support line has been added along with support staff, which have used and administered FaxAction at newspapers for more than three years.

CTI is on the Web at http://www.competent.com/.

DAILYSHOPPER NETWORK
This on-line promotions network for retail advertisers has announced the launch of NetCircular, a new service designed to help retailers easily and cost-effectively increase exposure for their print circulars on the Web.

NetCircular makes it possible to display information from sales or promotional circulars over DailyShopper's web-based network of city guides, newspaper sites and web-shopping portals.

DailyShopper is on the Web at http://www.dailyshopper.com/.

FEATUREWELL.COM
This new electronic marketplace, where editors can shop for articles by top journalists, has signed syndication deals with REASON magazine, POETS & WRITERS magazine, FOREWORD magazine and Ironminds.com. The syndication agreements ensure that writers will also profit from the dissemination of their work.

Featurewell is on the Web at http://www.featurewell.com/.

HARLEQUIN
This subsidiary of Global Graphics Inc. has announced the signing of a new software license agreement with Mail.com, a global provider of outsourced messaging services to enterprises, carriers, ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and web sites.

Harlequin's ScriptWorkS Interpreter will provide the core server-based engine technology to be integrated with Mail.com's FaxMailer Service -- which is an Internet fax service that allows users to send faxes directly from their e-mail -- and Production Fax Service -- which enables applications' servers to be used as a communications engine, capable of automatically faxing thousands of computer-generated invoices, orders, statements and other documents on demand -- providing additional document format conversion capabilities.

Harlequin's Enterprise Edition (EE) RIP will be used to convert client-supplied PostScript and PDF files to raster files for further distribution.

Harlequin is on the Web at http://www.harlequin.com/.

INFONAUTICS INC.
This King of Prussia, Pa.-based developer of web-based products has announced that its Entertainment Sleuth web site, a pop-culture aggregator and entertainment e-mail provider on the Internet, will power a co-branded entertainment web site and customized e-mail service with ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY's EW.com site.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY will market the new co-branded site and services to the more than 1.6 million unique monthly users of EW.com, as well as to the more than 8 million readers of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY magazine. Registered users of the site can create a pop-culture portfolio that showcases news, photos and multi-media on up to 10 of today's hottest celebrities, movies, TV shows and bands, just like users of Entertainment Sleuth can.

Infonautics is on the Web at http://www.infonautics.com/.

OPENPAGES INC.
Based in Westford, Mass., this enterprise content production systems supplier has announced the stock acquisition of Viveca Inc., a provider of tools for business-to-business content and on-line catalogs. With this acquisition, Openpages and Viveca will create a single, inter-enterprise content lifecycle system.

Openpages plans to deliver a product integrating Viveca's technology by the end of 2001 to help businesses meet the content challenge of B2B e-commerce, such as: aggregating, normalizing, converting, managing and syndicating content between suppliers, partners and customers.

Openpages also announced the completion of its second round financing with $10 million from JAFCO Ventures, who join Goldman Sachs, Matrix Partners, North Hill Ventures and Sigma Partners in dedicating a total of $40 million for the company's second round of financing.

Openpages is on the Web at http://www.openpages.com/, while Viveca is located at http://www.viveca.com/.

THOMAS TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS INC.
Based in Horsham, Pa., this company, formerly known as Reed Technology, Commercial Division, has recently completed a content management system for Hemming Information Services Ltd., a division of Hemming Group Ltd.

Code-named the Media Independent Directory Authoring System (MIDAS), the system contains data from five of Hemming's directories, and drives its on-line and print directories.

ThomasTech converted information on thousands of United Kingdom and European retailers in 20 countries, the entire food and drink industry in Europe and the United Kingdom, and information on thousands of UK-based manufacturing companies. MIDAS enables Hemming's staff to add new fields or new export formats for additional publications.

ThomasTech is on the Web at http://www.thomastechsolutions.com/.

X-RITE INC.
This Granville, Mich.-based global provider of technology tools that measure color and light has announced that it has begun customer shipments of its new Auto Tracking Densitometer for newspaper publications. The new instrument speeds the process of evaluating and adjusting gray balance in newspaper production, and measures and reports density levels form very small continuous-color bars.

X-Rite Inc. 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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