Tribune Media's WebPoint: The syndicate's Web pages can be customized, as illustrated by the Newport News (Va.) Daily Press' versions of "The Fitness Files."

Click comics: Universal Press Syndicate's UClick product requires the Web surfer to have come from a newspaper site to obtain access to that paper's comics; here the comics of the Phoenix Newspapers are shown.

Using the Internet to deliver content for the Internet

LAS VEGAS -- Newspapers have always performed a delicate balancing act: how to cram 10 pounds of effluent into an eight-pound (or smaller) bag.

There has always been just so much room for covering the day's events, so a lot of condensing and trimming had to be done.

But that was before newspapers decided to put material on the World-Wide Web. Thanks to HTML, a story can have all sorts of breadth and depth through links that don't even have to reside on the newspaper's site.

First type became flexible, and now we have the ultimate flexibility: Stories don't have to be trimmed. The news hole is limited only by the size of the hard disk on a Web server. Sidebars galore ... nirvana for newspaper production people!

Unfortunately, the reality is much more complex. Just repackaging yesterday's newspaper for the Internet takes a rather bare-bones approach. Fondly referred to as "shovelware," it's the cheapest way to set up shop on the Internet.

Newspapers would like something more ... sort of a feature service for Internet content, which could be dropped onto a Web page just like a news service feature is used to dress up an inside page.

Thus, the second part of the equation: Where do we get raw material for the Web news hole? The Internet is a two-way street, so why not get some content delivered via this pipeline, and then do what newspapers do best -- digest and repackage it for your readership?

Things have been happening pretty fast in this field, and this correspondent didn't fully grasp both horns of what the Internet could deliver to newspapers until NEXPO '96 was over and the cooling fog of San Francisco had congealed what I saw in torrid Las Vegas.

I may not have seen everything in the content and delivery categories, but scattered around the floor were many organizations catering to both these markets.

The old weather war horses -- AccuWeather Inc. of State College, Pa., and WeatherData of Wichita, Kan. -- both can deliver weather maps over the 'Net, and are serving many clients.

The only dispute would be who has embraced the Internet more fervently, and on that score WeatherData seems the more cautious of the two. Still, it can claim to have made the first 'Net offering -- in 1995, to the San Jose Mercury News' on-line entity, Mercury Center.

AccuWeather advertises its services to the whole World-Wide Web, while WeatherData's Web site is open only to clients with a password.

A newcomer to the world of weather content providers is Tribune Media Services of Chicago. It has taken weather maps provided by Weather Central Inc. of Madison, Wis., and given that company an Internet outlet.

Of much greater importance is the truly massive amount of prepackaged content TMS provides through its WebPoint content offering.

Eleven modules are available now, including Bitstorm, with video game reviews and tips; Cinem@, a guide for moviegoers; and modules for fitness, car buying, home buying, finding a job, pets, puzzles, health, schedules for professional and college teams, and horoscopes.

All these modules can be customized easily by anyone, with a modicum of Web page construction. In fact, one person could do it all.

If that weren't enough, WebPoint has even more modules under development -- for computers, kids' news, personal finance, smart supermarket shopping, sports scores and expanded weather.

TMS touts its ability to save money and time for clients, and is making a big push to be a major content provider for newspapers' Internet offerings. The combined depth and breadth of its offerings puts TMS ahead for now in this rapidly developing class.

The Wire is coming.

The Associated Press, everyone's content provider, is not going to be left out in the cold in the race to fill virtual space on a client's Web page.

After beta testing throughout the summer, The Wire will be available to all members sometime in the fall. Essentially an on-line news service for AP members, The Wire is meant to complement a member's own on-line service, and will be accessible only through an AP member's Web site.

With this new service, the AP will try to deliver news in a new way -- tailored to cyberspace. There will be words, of course, but also sounds, pictures, graphics and video, and access to AP's extensive databases.

And Lord love 'em, Everybody's Favorite Cooperative will be giving away The Wire to members ... for the rest of 1996. The first assessment will come in 1997, and will be based on a newspaper's print circulation, just like other AP assessments. (If a reliable way for measuring an on-line audience becomes available, assessment calculation might change.)

Room will be available for a member to add its own contributions to The Wire package. AP also will offer the opportunity to split off the archival search feature as a separate service, which would cost a subscriber more.

On balance, it seems like the AP may have figured out a way for it to make money from the Internet. Member papers, however, will have to wait to see whether local surfers will be willing to pay a fee for getting Wired.

Pictures and sports are coming over the 'Net now, too.

Wieck Photo DataBase Inc. of Dallas has decided to use Apple Internet Servers to set up a new Internet distribution system of the news services that it handles -- the New York Times News Service, Agence France-Presse and Kyodo News Service of Japan.

Kyodo will be on-line with its historical image library of 100,000 photos dating back 150 years.

And Washington-based Agence France-Presse presented two new Internet delivery products at NEXPO: AFP World Sports Report and AFP Olympic Report.

Rather than duplicate other sports services, AFP decided to emphasize such sports as soccer, which receive little space in regular newspapers but would not be a problem on a Web page.

The Olympic Report was put together to take advantage of the squadrons of AFP reporters and photographers covering the Centennial Summer Games in Atlanta.

When it comes to virtual delivery of photos, PressLink was the first to use the chief Internet browser, Netscape, in 1995.

This year, PressLink appeared in Las Vegas as a part of MediaStream Inc., of Reston, Va., with PressLink Online, pretty much the same idea as 1995, and a reselling mechanism for the former Vu/Text electronic library, which includes the San Jose Mercury News and St. Paul Pioneer Press, to name just two.

It remains to be seen how many 'Net surfers will want to pay $1.75 to obtain an article during business hours -- off-peak the price is 25 cents.

Not everyone offering Internet delivery of content to newspapers was at NEXPO. Universal Press Syndicate of Kansas City, Mo., wasn't -- it was at Connections.

This summer, the syndicate started 'Net delivery of comics for newspaper Web pages. To keep just anyone from getting current strips, Universal adopted a technology called UClick, which prevents any reader from bookmarking the site to obtain current strips.

Much like AP's The Wire, comics can be accessed only through a participating newspaper's Web page.

It's certainly a value-added feature to a paper's Web page, but again, will it be enough to attract paying subscribers? The Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette have been the first papers to sign up for the service, which costs a "small premium" over standard printing rights.

Reed Brennan Media Associates Inc. of Winter Park, Fla., which has been putting together comics pages for newspapers, now also offers comics for newspaper Web pages.

Not too many newspaper Web sites feature comics yet, but almost every one affords some way to view classified ads, which have at least been repurposed to enable searches so potential buyers can rapidly find that for which they are looking (see The Cole Papers, July 1996).

Comics on-line, like all things Internet, is a growth field for newspapers.

The Internet is a great two-way pipeline, which traditionally (if something with such a short lifespan can even have a tradition) has charged nothing for its information. Perhaps people will want to pay for the same or more content than can be found in newspapers, but the effort to "shake your moneymaker" is far from ended.

Still, it's more likely that there will be a shakeout, with some of the content providers and repurposers going away, before the majority of surfers submit to any substantial monetary shakedown.

-- George Powell

AccuWeather Inc.,
(814) 237-0309;
Agence France-Presse,
(202) 414-0535;
The Associated Press,
(212) 621-1732;
MediaStream Inc.,
(703) 758-1740;
Reed Brennan Media Associates,
(407) 539-2157;
Tribune Media Services,
(312) 222-4444;
Universal Press Syndicate,
(816) 932-6696;
WeatherData Inc.,
(316) 265-9127;
Wieck Photo Database Inc.,
(214) 392-0888.

From THE COLE PAPERS, August 1996, Copyright © 1996, All Rights Reserved.