COLE'S NEWSWIRE, Jan. 8, 1997

Jan. 8, 1997
Vol. 3, No. 1

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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EDGIL ASSOCIATES INC.
Edgil, a software provider based in Chelmsford, Mass., and CableSoft Corp. of Burlington, Mass., have signed an agreement to meld their information and software systems to provide newspapers with an interactive classified advertising service for television.

Incorporating Edgil's AdParse software, CableSoft's ClassiFinder service will transfer information from a newspaper's classified database to cable TV service providers for transmission to viewers, who can search for items on-screen, by category, using a remote control.

AdParse will standardize the ads and load them into a relational database. Ads are to be sent daily to the cable company's TV signal distribution center via the Internet. There, CableSoft's computer server module, equipped with AdParse, formats ad information into a searchable database. The ad database can be accessed on-screen by cable viewers through a converter box.

Edgil may be visited on the World-Wide Web at http://www.edgil.com/.

HARRIS PUBLISHING SYSTEMS CORP.
Harris Publishing Systems Corp., a pre-press systems integrator and subsidiary of Harris Corp. based in Melbourne, Fla., received these orders recently:

-- STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER, Springfield, Ill. (68k, morning): XP-21 system upgrade, IMAGES (Image Management and Graphics Enhancement System) workstation software, upgrade of Harris 2100 Pagination workstations to Harris NewsMaker Pagination software, upgrade of several 2100 Display Ad workstations to DASH (Display Ad System by Harris) software.

-- ANN ARBOR (Mich.) NEWS (52k, evening): XP-21 server software, Replication software, Graphics Browser software, MetroCASH (Classified Advertising) system, Mac Browser software licenses and C-PAG (Classified Ad Pagination) software.

-- York Newspaper Co., York, Pa. (YORK DAILY RECORD, 41k, morning; YORK DISPATCH, 40k, evening): XP-21 server software, IMAGES workstation software, JPEG software, Mac Browser software licenses, Mac version Photoshop software, upgrades to several 8900 Pagination workstations to Harris NewsMaker Pagination workstations and upgrade of C-PAG (Classified Pagination) software to 2100 C-PAG software.

Harris may be visited on the World-Wide Web at http://www.harris.com/hpsc.

MAXUM DEVELOPMENT CORP.
Maxum, a software provider based in of Streamwood, Ill., has introduced Phantom 2.0, a major upgrade to Maxum's web crawler/search engine for the Mac OS.

Phantom enables webmasters to build targeted search and retrieval capabilities into their sites, making the entire site searchable from a single entry point. Phantom works well also as a content-specific search engine, where a webmaster may want to make the content on his or her own site more accessible.

Phantom can crawl servers running any HTTP server software on Macintosh, UNIX, or Windows NT platforms. Phantom also archives and mirrors sites, performs automatic updating and provides reporting and site management capabilities. With Version 2.0, Phantom can be administered via a web browser remotely from anywhere on the Internet.

Phantom, whose data file size has been reduced by as much as 75 percent, also now offers e-mail notification of changed pages, an automatic advertising module, automatic periodic backups and relevancy ranking of search results.

Phantom 2.0 is expected to ship in February 1997. A beta version is currently available for download at http://www.maxum.com/Phantom/. The version 2.0 upgrade will be free to all current registered users. Phantom retails for $395.

MDG COMPUTER SERVICES
Bartlett, Ill.-based MDG has announced that its Web Server 4D 1.0.6 for Macintosh and Windows 95/NT will ship by Feb. 14, 1997. Besides Windows compatibility, Version 1.0.6 adds NetCloak commands support, virtual hosting, force frames from external links and WS4D version notifier.

NetCloak, from Maxum Development Corp. of Streamwood, Ill., allows creation of dynamic, conditional HTML pages. Another new feature will notify registered users as soon as new releases are available for download.

A free demo, with 300 hours of start-and-stop operation, is available for download. A download purchase of Web Server 4D costs $245. Web Server 4D for Windows Developer is available for $695 and includes uncompiled source code.

MDG may be visited on the World-Wide Web at http://www.mdg.com/.

MEDIA MARKETING INC.
Media Marketing, a software provider based in Boulder, Colo., whose imMEDIAte Integrated Sales Automation products include Research Manager, Ad Director, Media Analyst, Sales Assistant and Creative Director, has announced these recent installations:

-- MONTGOMERY (Ala.) ADVERTISER (63k, morning): Macintosh versions of Research Manager and imMEDIAte Ad Director.

-- TAMPA (Fla.) FLYER (weekly) Macintosh versions of imMEDIAte Research Manager and imMEDIAte Ad Director.

-- TWIN FALLS (Idaho) TIMES-NEWS (21k morning): Macintosh versions of Research Manager and imMEDIAte Ad Director.

-- MOLINE (Ill.) DISPATCH (29k, evening): Macintosh versions of imMEDIAte Research Manager, imMEDIAte Ad Director and imMEDIAte Media Analyst including Radio and Television Analyst.

-- ASHEVILLE (N.C.) CITIZEN-TIMES (68k, morning) Macintosh versions of imMEDIAte Research Manager, imMEDIAte Ad Director and imMEDIAte Media Analyst including Radio and Television Analyst.

-- HOUSTON CHRONICLE (413k, all-day): Windows versions of imMEDIAte Research Manager, imMEDIAte Ad Director and imMEDIAte Media Analyst including Radio and Television Analyst.

NANDO.NET
Visit Nando.Net, an on-line pioneer based in Raleigh, N.C., at http://www.nando.net/survey/survey/compare.html to see how its readers' choices for the Top 10 news stories of 1996 compare with those of top U.S. and international editors. Nando readers in the United States (21,728 responses) and overseas (3454 responses) voted the crash of TWA Flight 800 the top story of the year.

SYSTEM INTEGRATORS INC.
SII, a pre-press systems provider based in Sacramento, Calif., has announced that the company is adopting a new business structure that repositions it as a true system integrator and further strengthens its customer service business. As part of its new integrator business structure, SII also announced that it is expanding its relationship with its partner Cybergraphic Systems Pty. Ltd. of Melbourne, Australia.

The expanded SII-Cybergraphic relationship will include the joint development of a new generation of Windows NT-based publishing software as well as cooperative sales, marketing and support activities. The goal is to provide a migration path for current SII customers to the new jointly developed Cybergraphic publishing solutions. SII will continue to sell, support and improve its current product line including the completion of key developments such as Coyote/3 for Windows NT, System/77 on ServerNet and ODBC, an SQL compliance project.

With the resulting economies of scale from the expanded Cybergraphic relationship, SII said it is reducing the size of its R&D staff by 14 people. The reductions are focused in areas where SII had been developing next generation software that will now be licensed from Cybergraphic or other third party developers. The new integrator plan does not impact SIIGlobalNet, the company's customer service organization or the R&D department's support of the current product line, including SII Year2000 software compliance or the company's WAZ development project in Germany.

A Sacramento Bee article on SII's restructuring is available at http://www.sacbee.com/news/beetoday/newsroom/biz/010797/biz06_3167.html, while the company's own press release is at http://www.sii.com/press/010697.htm.

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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.

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