The Cole PapersJune 2000

GoCode (left): The company's pen-like scanner not only reads the company's tiny barcodes, but also has buttons to take users directly to advertiser-supported web sites.

Managing Editor Inc. (right): The newest version of Managing Editor's Ad Layout System is now interfaced with the company's Roundhouse Ad Tracking System.

Monotype Systems Inc.: The longtime output system supplier provides broadsheet proofing with the Monotype Proof Express II.

NewsEngin Inc.: WireTracker, based on Lotus Domino and an intranet-based browser application, has more advanced search capability than traditional newspaper systems; in the center, the New York Times' implementation of WireTracker.

MapQuest.com: High-quality maps can be created on-line by an editor and the resulting Adobe Illustrator file can be downloaded and edited at the paper as necessary.

17. Gannett Media Technologies International and Experience Technology Inc.: Gmti will be showing an enhanced version of its Celebro Advertising Solutions product (now dubbed Celebro.com) that allows real estate and automotive advertisers to enter their ad copy on-line through templates. On the archiving side, Gmti will show the DC4 I-Commerce module, which will allow for a shopping basket and on-line content purchase through the DC4 archive system. In conjunction with Experience Technology (a group of former newspaper people from Canada's Southam), Gmti will be showing xtQ Extractor, a Quark XPress XTension that automatically extracts content from complex XPress documents into a fully tagged, media-neutral database. (513) 665-3777; e-mail: info@gmti.gannett.com.

18. Gazette Technologies: In the world of newspaper data warehousing -- that is, the storage and analysis of all your business and content data -- you have two choices: you can do it all yourself (not a pretty picture) or you can go to Gazette Technologies for MarketInfo. Well, that's not quite true: Gazette was acquired by Geac Publishing Systems (see below) a few weeks back and though they are now all one big happy family, the MarketInfo folks are still in their own booth. Whether sold by Gazette or Geac, MarketInfo -- based on Oracle database technology -- is the industry leader. (813) 872-9990; e-mail: vsinfo@geac.com.

19. GDT-Nova: A marketing and development alliance between Global Digital Technologies (née Grover Digital Technologies) and Nova Publishing Systems (née Group West) seems like it will provide a variety of products, from remote data entry to full-fledged systems. The new products from GDT-Nova include a client/server system for remote ad and editorial entry called Connex (there are separate clients for classified Web entry, agency remote entry and remote reporting). In addition, the company will be offering Competent Consulting's FaxAction (a fax-OCR processing system), Pongrass Advertising (see below) and Wilkenson Scoop for editorial. And don't leave the booth without them telling you about iMisc.com, the new classified aggregation site. (530) 887-1795; e-mail: sales@gdtnova.com.

20. Geac Publishing Systems: What a difference a year makes. At the last NEXPO, Geac had just acquired Cybergraphic and it wasn't clear exactly what would happen. Over the course of 12 months -- and a couple more acquisitions -- Geac has shown that it gained not only product, but vision from Cybergraphic. In addition to bringing in a number of high-quality industry veterans, Geac has built a complete product line that runs the gamut of newspaper needs -- Sales Command (which features CyberClass, Cyber$ell and its on-line sibling, Cyber$ell.Web), Media Command (which features the CyberNews/CyberPage editorial system), Finance Command (featuring Vision Shift), Enterprise Command (Gazette Technologies' MarketInfo) and Circulation Command (Matrix). The new company is working to integrate not only its own products, but is opening up products for third-party integration. From an also-ran to a leader in just a year -- wow. (813) 872-9990; e-mail: takecommand@geac.com.

21. GoCode: Hailed in some quarters as a savior to the newspaper industry, it's hard to believe that this tiny technology would have such an impact. GoCode is a two-dimensional barcode that can be set as small as 4.3 points in height and can be added to the end of a story or onto a classified or display ad. Using GoCode's hand-held wand reader (the company claims it is "the most inexpensive"), a quick scan of the barcode brings up Web pages. The ultimate vision is "a reader sitting on a couch with a wireless version scanning GoCodes and using their newspaper to surf the Web, watch TV or movies and buy goods straight from the paper." And it is supposed to be simple to implement at the paper. (843) 723-5155; e-mail: partners@gocode.com.

22. Harris Publishing Systems Corp.: With its Baseview subsidiary holding up the smaller-paper end of the market and its traditional NewsMaker product holding up the big-paper end of the market, all that was left was the mid-size paper market and Harris' new offering, JazBox, takes care of that. A full-featured Windows-based editorial system, JazBox has a number of components, including a text editor, print page layout capability, Web page layout capability and a digital asset management environment. Harris will also be showing its MAXWorkFlow digital output management system and its AdPower advertising system. (321) 242-5330; e-mail: hpscmktg@harris.com.

23. IBM and NewsEngin Inc.: There will be some surprises at the IBM booth (they wouldn't tell us what), but it's no surprise that NewsEngin is again a leading exhibitor at NEXPO. This year, the company will be touting its WireTracker 3.0, which was recently installed at the New York Times to handle all wire service collection and sorting (the user interface is exclusively through Web browsers). As with all NewsEngin products, it is based on Lotus Domino (Notes is the client, Domino the server) -- a product from (surprise) IBM. The company will also show its other 'Tracker products -- StoryTracker, PhotoTracker, GraphicTracker, StaffTracker, SourceTracker and Stylebook. (636) 537-8548; e-mail: jim@newsengin.com.

24. Kinecta Corp.: If the acronyms XML (eXtensible Markup Language), ICE (Information and Content Exchange), DIM (Distributed Information Management) or Prism (Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata) get your blood racing, then Kinecta is the place for you. Even if they don't, maybe you should get the company to explain its work with the Reuterspace Media Group, which now provides real-time financial data and news of global financial markets via its Internet Delivery System, which is based on the Kinecta Interact system. (415) 934-5800; e-mail: info@kinecta.com.

25. KnowIT Inc.: Predictive dialing -- the boon of telemarketers and the bain of consumers (it's not the system that's the problem, it's the way many marketers implement it) -- and local area network implementation of call center management are KnowIT's strengths. The company's TNT (Telephone Network Turbodialer) is in place in both in-bound and out-bound environments, with as few as four and as many as 1000 call center agents. The company also offers contact management, database marketing and digital recording systems. (617) 969-7522; e-mail: info@knowit-cti.com.

26. Lazer-Fare Media Services: PostStrip 2.5 -- the latest version of the Portable Document Format (PDF) automatic stripping environment -- now will allow for off-site delivery of PDF ads and zoned publications. This server-based application can handle both editorial and advertising material in PDF and place it on the correct page automatically. (203) 452-5023; e-mail: enquiries@lazerfare.com.

27. Mactive Inc.: With its new WebBase Internet Advertising System, Mactive has provided its AdBase classified front-end with on-line data entry for both private party and contract clients. WebBase, which will be available in the fall, uses a "wizard" concept to select tags that will automatically produce ads which can work both on-line and in print. The company, which appears to be growing, will also show the latest features for AdBase. (321) 254-5559; e-mail: info@mactiveinc.com.

28. Managing Editor Inc.: The longtime provider of advertising and layout products has a couple of neat tricks up its sleeve this year: AdsUp and Press Control Suite. The first is an add-on remote ad entry tool that works with the company's Roundhouse Ad Tracking System and the Palm operating system (meaning you can use Palm hand-held computers or the new Handspring Visor hand-helds); when placed in a Palm VII, ad order entry can be done wirelessly. The second is an add-on to the company's Ad Layout System (ALS), which sends a complete description of an edition to the paper's press control system. All this and new versions of Roundhouse, ALS and Classified Layout System. Oh, and ask what they want to charge for AdsUp. (215) 886-5662; e-mail: info@maned.com.

29. MapQuest.com: One of the biggest problems in the editorial art department is the creation and archiving of maps. The artists hate to do maps while the editors love to assign them. Though desktop computers have made the whole map thing much easier, here's something that might make it a breeze: MapWire is an on-line custom map creation tool. After setting up an account with MapQuest -- the people who bring you the interactive maps on Yahoo, AOL Digital City and Infoseek -- an editor can go through a set of Web pages to build a custom map; the result is then sent to the paper in Adobe Illustrator or Encapsulated PostScript Format, where it can be edited to meet the paper's typographic style. An artist might not even need to be involved in the process, freeing them up to pout in the corner or something. (443) 367-3041; e-mail: info@mapwire.com.

30. MediaXpress: Trying to figure out ways to get more mileage out of your news product? MediaXpress is an aggregator and reseller of content for intranets, extranets, corporate portals, public web sites and on-line communities. The company calls itself the "experts in licensing and delivering media" and existing providers include Reuters, the Financial Times of London and Phillips Publishing. (602) 952-5501; e-mail: salesinfo@mediaxpress.com.

31. Modulo Systems: The developer and seller of QPS -- formerly known as Quark Publishing System -- will make its first NEXPO appearance since Quark licensed the company to handle the product. QPS is still sold through resellers (such as Betco, Computer Tree, DeskNet Inc., I.M.A.G.E. Inc., Publishing Connections Inc. and Q Integrators Ltd.) but it is assumed that Modulo will give the product more attention than Quark ever did. (617) 234-4144; e-mail: info@modulosystems.com.

32. Monotype Systems Inc. and Freedom System Integrators: Between these two sibling companies you pretty much have a soup-to-nuts set of solutions: editorial front-end (either Mac or Windows), advertising front-end (ditto) and output management and control. MSI will be showing its PrintExpress 2000 production output and management system in addition to computer-to-plate imaging and new features within the Panther Workflow product line. PrintExpress will be demonstrating workflows based on the installations at Long Island, N.Y.'s Newsday, Columbus, Ohio's Dispatch and California's San Bernardino Sun. FSI will be showing its Advance, Freedom and Mets systems. And this just in to NewsScene: Monotype will be featuring the newly released double-truck capstan recorder, the Pantara 62, which has a throughput of 75-inches per minute at 1016-dots-per-inch. This equates to 214 unpunched pages per hour or 123 double punched (head and tail) pages per hour, they say in Rolling Meadows, Ill. (847) 427-8800; e-mail: sales@monoexpress.com.

33. MyCity.com: With more than 50,000 on-line communities around the country, MyCity.com has access on local government, parks, neighborhoods, clubs, activities, businesses, services, shopping, schools and community services. What it needs is a newspaper like yours as an affiliate. Part of the bargain is access to the company's MyWebKit, which gives small businesses all the tools needed to conduct business on-line with local consumers. (305) 531.7139; e-mail: info@hq.mycity.com.

34. NewsMX.com: Been hankering for a photo archive, but can't bring yourself (or bring the publisher) to grips with the fact that you're going to have to spend some money? Maybe this will change your mind: NewsMX.com will allow you to archive your photos on-line to a password-protected web site for a nominal fee. Where the company plans to make its money, though, is to allow photographers and publishers to sell their photos on NewsMX.com (60/40 split to the creator). The company will provide free Iptc-compliant editing- and uploading-software in both Mac and Windows formats. All this, and the partners doing it are ArcSoft Inc. (creators of the PhotoIsland Network) and Photo Systems Inc. (supplier of digital photography equipment to a wide variety of newspapers). (510) 440-9901; e-mail: nbrown@arcsoft.com.


From THE COLE PAPERS, June 2000, Copyright © 2000, All Rights Reserved.

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