Hoop dreams: Searching for information or pictures about basketball player Hakeem Olajuwon on the GEIS-based PressLink, above, gives a list of file titles. Performing the same search on the Web-based PressLink, below, brings up the full caption as well as a thumbnail of a high-resolution photo.

Photos and graphics, together at last: The Web-based PressLink allows a news organization to search for photos, graphics, text or any combination, along with a choice of information providers, left. The resulting screen, right, shows both the photos and graphics that were found when searching for Bosnia.

PressLink moves news, photo, graphic distribution to Web

A pioneer in the digital delivery of news content, for almost a decade PressLink Inc. has distributed digitized content -- articles and graphics at first, then photographs -- over its dial-up service to print and broadcast media organizations worldwide.

Beginning in January, the same information -- along with additional news, feature and specialized materials for both print and on-line publishers -- will be available from a new complementary outpost on the Internet's World-Wide Web.

During NEXPO '95, PressLink showcased a prototype Web interface to its range of services. It established a beta program for selected users to test drive its forthcoming home page, and provide feedback for the new user interface (see The Cole Papers, August 1995).

After several months of tweaking and enhancing, members soon will be able to fire up a web browser to search the content of the numerous information sources, with several significant improvements in functionality over the conventional dial-up method. (For those without Internet access, the dial-up service will remain on-line indefinitely.)

Beginning late this month or early next, a larger group of members -- traditional publishers and on-line publications -- will be able to participate in an expanded pilot project and put PressLink Online into daily production.

Many of the differences in distribution schemes will be apparent quickly -- more so to subscribers with high-speed Internet connectivity.

With the current dial-up access to PressLink via General Electric Information Service (GEIS), members looking for the best photograph from a specific news event have to manually browse through each of the potential source's current files -- available in two widely disparate sizes -- rather than do a single search through several or all providers at once.

In addition, GEIS searching means reviewing just story slugs and text descriptions of the images. For a peek, users can download and view low-resolution preview versions of images before deciding which high-res files to download, which can take five to 10 minutes each over slower modems.

All in all, it's a cumbersome and time-consuming process ill-suited for most deadline searches.

On the other hand, the Webified PressLink Online (http://www.presslink.com) offers a vastly improved, highly graphical method for using a web browser to quickly find the right images -- and related articles and graphics -- from any or all member sources.

A "Quick Search" can be done for any number of the most recently uploaded files from a user-selected group of providers, and by categories, including all photos and graphics at once.

When done searching, the user is given a small preview of the image and a brief description; a hotlink to a more detailed caption containing detailed Iptc information, and clickable buttons to download an image in one of three resolutions -- thumbnail, screen-resolution and full-resolution.

For Netscape Navigator users on a Macintosh, acquisition is simple -- drag-and-drop the chosen file to its destination.

Equally as helpful, the new home page organizes information by context of the top stories of the day, rather than only by provider, in a frequently updated area called Front Page.

During a recent foray into the beta site, I went browsing for information about two unrelated newsworthy events -- the second coming of Beatlemania, and the current status of the situation in war-torn Bosnia and the ongoing peace talks in Dayton, Ohio.

On the Front Page, photos and graphics of the Beatles, including ABC's extensive collection of materials related to its three-part broadcast of The Beatles Anthology, were highlighted for easy retrieval. Pointers took me directly to the assorted files.

A "quick search" on the day's uploads on Bosnia, searching for "all files," turned up a range of materials, with previews of graphics and photographs from a number of news services.

Yet another search, of the 10 most recent photo uploads, featured numerous news and file photos of Princess Diana, whose televised revelations of adultery pushed the Fab Four Revisited off many front pages in England.

A similar search of the new Sports Section quickly retrieved images from the NBA Photos on-line area, including background pictures and game action images.

NBA Photos was the first content provider to join the new high-speed Internet-based service, and one of the only organizations so far to offer its images for the media marketplace exclusively on PressLink.

One longtime provider, Agence France-Presse, is looking forward to the benefits of PressLink Online.

"In general we're hoping that the move will drive increased viewing/reading and downloading of content due to better, more attractive, user-friendly interface and lower communication cost to user," said Carol DeHaven, an AFP sales executive. "The fact that the user will be able to drag and drop a full-res to the desktop while continuing to look at other content is a big step."

Starwave, publisher of Espn SportsZone on the Web (http://www.starwave.com), is the first digital news operation to participate in PressLink's pilot program for on-line publishers. Beginning in November, Starwave had access to NBA Photos' daily and historical archives, and began publishing photos on its Web site.

According to PressLink, the list of on-line publishers is expected to grow to more than 100 news organizations by year's end.

Unlike some commercial on-line services that have or are developing customized web browsers specifically for users of their services, PressLink will allow its subscribers to select from among off-the-shelf web browsing applications.

Rich Cates, PressLink's president, said that Netscape's Navigator is the browser being used in development and in designing his company's web interface, but that the intent is for users to be able to access the site with any reasonably developed browsing application.

Cates stressed that PressLink's focus would remain on "processing, cataloging and organizing" information from many sources and many transmission methods -- from e-mail to CD-ROM to Isdn, not on the hardware and software.

PressLink Online will allow users to quickly locate pictures on demand, Cates said, almost like a conventional broadcast system -- but the interactive model for the new web service will allow users to "search and find just the pictures they want ... rather than automatically receive 300 to 400 pictures day," a reference to the PhotoStream digital picture service from the Associated Press.

In addition, Cates said, members won't be forced to store large numbers of images for possible future use because all pictures will remain on-line in the ever-growing photo database, accessible 24 hours a day.

PressLink will continue to focus on its traditional media markets, Cates said, but also anticipates additional markets for which the new service could prove to be useful.

One example is the growing number of on-line publishers and new media adventurers, which have the potential for using greater numbers of images -- but in smaller file sizes than for print.

"On-line publishers need robust visual and audio components," Cates said, "and PressLink will provide them, just as we now provide graphic content for their printed counterparts."

Pricing and variations in file size will be determined with that in mind. He also expects that smaller providers -- even individuals -- with content appropriate for the same marketplace could be made available as part of the PressLink Web site.

"We'll see where the market and technology takes us," Cates said.

After seeing the initial demonstration on the NEXPO trade show floor, the newspaper industry's largest annual technology event, Greg Anderson of the Morning News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash., called the PressLink web interface "the hottest thing that I saw (there) this year."

"The biggest quick advantage that I see is that you can actually see the graphics and photos without downloading them," Anderson said. "I have watched our graphics folks spend many minutes -- thus dollars -- downloading graphics just to see if we wanted them or not."

Mark Loundy, webmaster for the National Press Photographers Association and photo assignment editor for the Thomson Los Angeles News Group (Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Daily Tribune, Daily News of Whittier), has been among the small number of beta testers of the Internet service.

Currently, his group uses PressLink only for special or unusual photos that can't be located via broadcast services like PhotoStream and AP's PhotoExpress, which delivers third-party photos over its daily satellite feed.

Loundy's newspaper only recently acquired Internet access, and so could be interested in the easier-to-use Web gateway to PressLink. But while he says the web browser method is "far superior to what they have now," Loundy added that going on the 'Net introduces other issues that can't be discounted in comparing the old and new distribution channels.

"The big question," Loundy said, "is how reliable it is. On the 'Net, you're only as reliable as the weakest link in the chain. From my experience, the Internet is not now a place to do business on or something to rely on for commercial grade business -- especially deadline-oriented publishing."

The issue isn't so much whether PressLink can provide the security and user authentication required, but whether things outside its control -- the speed and trustworthiness of the many gateways over which information can travel across the 'Net -- will cause some compromises or breakdowns that could lead to disenchantment for time-crunched editors.

Loundy said his newspaper, for example, today would not be able to rely on a Web-delivered product for all of its needs. Future changes in technology might change that, he noted.

"The Internet was designed by scientists for scientists," Loundy said, "scientists working in a laboratory environment. We in the real world don't have that luxury."

With its users and providers increasingly aware of the issues of going on the Internet, PressLink President Cates says the organization has made every effort to provide the latest in security for its new Web presence.

PressLink is using Netscape Communication's Netsite Commerce Server software in its web server, designed specifically for commercial transactions. Users must log in with an authorized PressLink ID and password, similar to the current dial-up service.

No other Internet services -- e-mail, file transfer protocol (FTP), Gopher -- will be allowed on the web server. Other servers on the local network will, however, make it possible for members to send images to PressLink via FTP.

AFP's DeHaven said security is an issue for both cost and content reasons.

"Of course, we are concerned about security issues," she said, "but have been assured by PressLink that these have been properly addressed."

The move to the Web "means a larger potential market," she noted, "but also makes our photos in particular accessible to end-users outside the editorial and educational audience who have been our principal users and whose purposes are familiar to us.

"The new user population may not be as conscious of or sensitive to the need to respect the integrity of the editorial content," she said, "and we can't possibly police each usage."

So where might PressLink Online fit among the services already available to editors and publishers?

How does it stack up against the AP's digital broadcast service, the de facto standard in most U.S. newsrooms?

How does it compare with similar competing services like NewsCom, Wieck Photo Database and/or Picture Network International's PNI for Newspapers service (where former PressLink President Rick Blair is now a vice president)?

Depends on who you ask.

David Gray, managing editor for technology at the Providence Journal-Bulletin in Rhode Island, sees a definite place for it in his newsroom.

"We were a pre-beta tester for PressLink's Web approach, and I like it," Gray said. "I can see it as a real help on deadline when you're looking for that last-minute sports photo from a West Coast game."

First, the good news.

"I may be wrong, but I think its greatest value will be to those sites that have an Internet node, and can access and leave PressLink up and running on their Ethernet Macs running Mac/Leaf cards," Gray said.

"They'll be able to sit there with PressLink up and running just like Leaf, browse and view late incoming photos from the 'supps' [supplemental services, such as KRT, NYT, Allsport and Reuters] to grab the latest and greatest that AP never seems to move, or make late at best.

"Real quick downloads, saved to Leaf, and sent on their way to the pagination/Scitex or Autokon system of choice for production," Gray said, "would literally mean you can get on the press a picture that had become available only minutes before."

Better than a broadcast service?

Gray says no, at least not for a newspaper his size (190,000 circulation).

"But I also think delivery -- via PhotoStream or whatever -- is still preferable for the bulk of our pictures and graphics," he said. "You can't see what you don't know is available.

"By relying only on what you search for, you lose the serendipity of seeing a picture you might not have otherwise -- just like the disadvantages of being on-line rather than browsing a newspaper."

However, some smaller newspapers -- which make up the majority of the market -- that don't make prudent use of the hundreds of images they receive via a broadcast-oriented system might tilt the balance the other way. A key factor will be how PressLink's Web service is priced, something not yet carved in stone, according to Cates.

One thing for sure: Gone will be the widely disliked kilocharacter charges imposed by GEIS on PressLink -- and passed along to members -- that required the payment of an additional fee beyond the use of the image, based on the size of the file or files downloaded.

Cates says pricing will be formalized during the forthcoming pilot phase, based in part on member feedback and on providers' terms. While some providers may give full access to all users, others may still require a separate fee to have unlimited access to its on-line information.

But Cates believes the providers understand the changing nature -- and new opportunities -- of the publishing marketplace, particularly the growth of non-print applications, and most seem willing to price their materials accordingly.

Some may offer a separate license for nonprint uses, he suggested. In other words, prices should be noticeably lower than with the current dial-up service.

Jeff Adams, newsroom systems editor of the Dayton Daily News in Ohio, expects -- or hopes -- that the decrease in cost will be in the range of 30 percent.

His newspaper is a heavy user of PressLink, and after browsing the beta service, sees possibilities for an even greater use of materials in Dayton and Cox's growing on-line presence.

"It's really going to help push our Internet efforts forward," Adams said. "But it will depend on what kinds of deals we can cut with the providers."

Adams also hopes that the new Web-based service will begin to add content more targeted at the on-line publishing market. Almost all content -- and related pricing -- on PressLink is targeted at print use, with nonprint uses being an afterthought at best.

Many of the informational graphics now available, he said, don't translate well into nonprint use.

In 1996, Cates expects PressLink to address such needs in several ways; experimentation with new multimedia resources such as animated graphics already is under way.

Sound and video might become more readily available, as the user base and the technological hurdles -- bandwidth issues with high-resolution video files, for example -- are addressed by the industry.

The Associated Press,
(212) 621-1730;
Agence France-Presse,
(202) 414-0535, e-mail: dehaven@plink.geis.com;
NewsCom Inc.,
(305) 448-8411;
PressLink Inc.,
(703) 758-1740, e-mail: info@presslink.com;
Wieck Photo Database Inc.,
(214) 392-0888, e-mail: pixelize@aol.com.

-- Kurt Foss

See also: Links to the press

From THE COLE PAPERS, December 1995, Copyright © 1995, All Rights Reserved.