Links to the press

Founded in 1986 as a bulletin board system to distribute graphics to Knight-Ridder newspapers, PressLink has grown to where it now distributes files from more than 75 information providers.

Among the services distributing information via PressLink are Agence France-Presse (AFP), Reuters, the New York Times News Service, Allsport, Bettmann Archive, Archive Photos, ABC and CBS television, GlobeNet, Krtn, PR Newswire, Business Wire, NBA Photos and The Magma Agency.

Most of the content is aimed at conventional newspaper and magazine print production, with 96 of the 100 largest-circulation U.S. newspapers as members. (PressLink has grown equally fast in Europe, where now more than 50 of the top 200 newspapers subscribe.)

This subsidiary of Knight-Ridder, based in Reston, Va., has been run on the General Electric Information Services (GEIS) system since shortly after its start.

GEIS provides similar services to corporations and other communities desiring an on-line presence, using software derived from work done by Apple Computer for its AppleLink system.

PressLink also provides space for meeting places for user groups and industry associations such as the National Press Photographers Association. And it serves as a direct line to information and software upgrades from suppliers such as Aldus, Leaf, Nikon and Quark, and research facilities such as Knight-Ridder-owned Dialog.

-- KF

See also: PressLink moves news, photo, graphic distribution to Web

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