Cole's Newswire March 27, 1996
Vol. 2, No. 14

The 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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  • AGFA DIVISION, BAYER CORP.
    The Agfa-Gevaert Group of Boston, a subsidiary of Bayer Corp., and Adobe Systems Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., have formed an alliance to develop new software architecture for high-end pre-press applications.

    Agfa will join the technology team already working on development of Adobe SUPRA, which will integrate Adobe's PostScript language and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) to provide a modular, extensible framework for such devices as digital presses, demand printers, color copiers, large-format imagesetters, digital proofers and platemakers.

    Agfa manufactures imaging products and systems for publishers and other imaging industries.


  • BASEVIEW PRODUCTS INC.
    Baseview Products of Ann Arbor, Mich., installed software and hardware and trained at these publications in December:

    -- OCEANA'S HERALD JOURNAL of Hart, Mich. (6k weekly): seven pagination packages (including NewsEditPro, DragX and QTools), AdminPro and Style Sheet XTension.

    -- MANISTEE (Mich.) NEWS ADVOCATE (5k evening): two copies of ClassManagerPro and one Classified Accounts Receivables module.

    -- ORANGE (Texas) LEADER (10k evening): Two copies of ClassManagerPro, one Classified Accounts Receivables module, one copy of ClassFlow and in-house training.

    -- SUN PRAIRIE (Wis.) HOMETOWN NEWS (weekly): One copy of CirculationPro, including Subscription Handler, Distribution Handler and Preprint Handler, and Circulation Data Transfer.

    CANADA

    -- WESTERN PRODUCER of Saskatoon, Sask. (100k weekly): two copies of Circulation Pro, including Subscription Handler, Distribution Handler and Preprint Handler; three additional copies of Subscription Handler, and Circulation Data Transfer module.


  • EDGIL ASSOCIATES INC.
    Edgil, based in Chelmsford, Mass., has announced three recent installations of its EdgCapture system for automating prepayment of classified ads by credit card.

    The purchasers are the ALBANY (N.Y.) TIMES UNION (102k morning), FARGO (N.D.) FORUM (56k morning) and TALLAHASSEE (Fla.) DEMOCRAT (58k morning). All three have used EdgCapture to automate credit card processing directly from their front-end advertising systems.

    The TIMES UNION also has purchased CheckPro, Edgil's check drafting and direct-debit option. This makes it possible for the TIMES UNION to process personal checks as prepayment for advertising and circulation through its classified system from System Integrators Inc.

    EdgCapture, incorporated into the newspapers' local-area networks, passes all relevant payment information to credit card service providers, and also manages funds transfer for the newspapers. EdgCapture also updates the newspaper's business systems and runs routine credit card reports.

    As of April 1, credit card regulations will require newspapers and all direct marketing merchants to send AVS (address verification service) data along with current credit card information. EdgCapture is equipped to handle this change, Edgil said.


  • 4-SIGHT LTD.
    4-Sight, of West Des Moines, Iowa, has announced its revenues increased in fiscal 1995 to about $10 million, with pre-tax profits of $1.7 million. Both numbers are nearly double the similar figures for fiscal 1994.

    The company makes iSDN Manager, which supports multiple ISDN connections over multiple devices, as well as products for fax transmission and Open Pre-press Interface technologies.

    4-Sight also announced the appointment of Lyndon Stickley as president of the U.S. arm of the United Kingdom parent company. Stickley will continue as sales and marketing director of the international company, which is based in Bournemouth, England.

    In other U.S. appointments, Jason Taylor was named product marketing manager and Scott Regnier was promoted to sales manager for pre-press solutions.


  • HIGHWATER FBI LTD.
    Copyright protection for digital images is now possible through FBI Writer and FBI Detector, two Adobe Photoshop plug-ins from HighWater FBI of Cheltenham, England, a subsidiary of HighWater Designs Ltd. of Bedford, N.H.

    The Macintosh-based application runs in concert with Photoshop, enabling users of FBI Writer to attach to an image a unique personal user ID as well as a unique alpha-numeric ID for the image itself.

    A counter can detail how many images have been tagged by FBI Writer, which also affords overwrite protection for its digital "fingerprints" which are embedded in the image and will remain in place despite editing or copying.

    FBI Detector, which is freeware, is used to find FBI-placed fingerprints, which can be looked up in an FBI Registry in order to contact the copyright holder and secure permission to use the image.


  • INFO-CONNECT
    Info-Connect, a subsidiary of the POTTSVILLE (Pa.) REPUBLICAN, recently installed its 75th voice information system at three newspapers owned by D.C. Thompson & Co. Ltd. in Dundee, Scotland -- the COURIER (112k morning), EVENING TELEGRAPH (40k) and SUNDAY POST (1m). The eight-port system is Info-Connect's first installation in Scotland.

    In the United States, Info-Connect recently sold systems to seven newspapers, increasing its worldwide site total to 82. The U.S. purchasers are the PRESCOTT (Ariz.) DAILY COURIER (15k evening); Central Maine Newspapers (KENNEBEC JOURNAL in Augusta, 19k morning, and CENTRAL MAINE MORNING SENTINEL in Waterville, 24k morning); CARROLL COUNTY TIMES of Westminster, Md. (21k morning); NASHUA (N.H.) TELEGRAPH (29k morning); UNION (N.J.) LEADER (6k weekly); SIDNEY (Ohio) DAILY NEWS (13k evening), and LEADER-TELEGRAM of Eau Claire, Wis. (32k evening).


  • LINOTYPE-HELL CO.
    Linotype-Hell, a manufacturer of scanners, RIPs and imagesetters based in Hauppauge, N.Y., has introduced LinoServer Manager and LinoServer Objects.

    The complimentary products, which will begin shipping later this year (with some features set to be ready at year's end), feature tools for image acquisition and archiving, and secure remote access to images over the World-Wide Web and Wide-Area Networks. Both run on Apple Macintosh PowerMacs.


  • MANAGING EDITOR INC.
    Managing Editor of Jenkintown, Pa., has entered into an exclusive distribution agreement to market and support the HexBase Web Publishing Database developed by HexMac International Ltd., a German company.

    Under the agreement, MEI has exclusive rights to sell directly and through its distribution channels in North America, South America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It has nonexclusive rights worldwide except in Germany, Sweden and Norway.

    Developed for UNIX platforms and introduced in October 1995, HexBase offers the ability to present data on the World-Wide Web by extending HTML with additional expressions and control structures. HexBase can import any DBF files, and can use form elements on a Web page to query its database from within Web browsers.

    HexBase has been integrated with NCSA's HTTP Daemon, allowing hex-based scripts to be cached into memory for fast performance.

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    COLE'S NEWSWIRE is compiled by Pete Wetmore and distributed by The Cole Group, publishers of THE COLE PAPERS, COLE'S GUIDE TO PUBLISHING SYSTEMS and consultants to newspapers and magazines worldwide. To receive more information about The Cole Group, send e-mail to: info@colegroup.com.

    Copyright (c) 1996, The Cole Group. All Rights Reserved. This transmission may not be copied, archived or retransmitted without the express written permission of The Cole Group. If you are not a subscriber to COLE'S NEWSWIRE, you have received this transmission illegally.

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