The Cole Papers, Picks-35-50, May 2003

May 2003

Pongrass Newspaper Systems: A new editorial system, based on Quark XPress, leverages the company's classified advertising database, making the sharing of data between the two systems relatively easy.

Software Consulting Services LLC: Standard display ad dummying information can be imported into Adobe InDesign using SCS' InLay LE, which then will automatically place the ads on the pages.

35. PhotoAccess.com: An interesting new revenue source that has been discovered with the advent of digital imaging is the resale of news pictures to the general public. In the wet-chemistry days, a photographer might make a quick print for five bucks but the paper didn't usually see a cut of that. PhotoAccess.com provides the paper with the back-end infrastructure to make the process as painless as possible: the company builds a branded web site, makes the print and takes care of the fulfillment; the publisher sets the prices and cashes the checks at the end of the month. Current customers include Southern California's Orange County Register, Ohio's Dayton Daily News and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. (206) 264-2488, e-mail: info@photoaccess.com.

36. Pongrass Newspaper Systems: You may have thought that the Thunder from Down Under was an all-male cabaret act at the Excalibur Hotel on The Strip, but you'd be wrong: the shockwave from Sydney is that Pongrass has moved into the editorial arena. A longtime player in the world of classified ad order entry systems, Pongrass has leveraged its database design from the classified system for its new editorial product, which uses Quark XPress for page layout. Since the edit and ad databases share the same schema, integration between the two systems should be seamless. The company will also show its new stand-alone, multi-user ad layout system. (011) {61} 2-9369 3111, e-mail: sales@pongrass.com.au.

37. PowerOne Media Inc.: With investors that include such sterling newspaper names as Advance, Belo, Scripps, Hearst, Lee, Morris and Pultizer (to name seven of the 12 newspaper investors), PowerOne Media continues to provide publishers with on-line systems long after the dot-coms went dot-gone. The company will be introducing a "significantly enhanced" version of its Integrated Marketplace product that is a centralized system of classifieds, display ads, special sections, Yellow Pages, vertical sections and "traffic-driving gateways." For example, if a user types in "home improvement" into a search prompt, he or she might get results that include construction, foundations, decks, landscaping and the like (no mention if it bring ups reruns of the old Tim Allen TV show). (518) 687-6000, e-mail: info@poweronemedia.com.

38. PROTEC S.A.: Cross-media, cross-platform, the Spanish publishing system from Protec, Milenium Cross Media 4.0, appears to meet many publishers' check-lists. The company's product line uses a variety of ubiquitous database engines (it says most of its customers use Oracle) and that the system keeps separate track of page elements and pages. Protec says that the latest version of Milenium provides new ways of doing business with other businesses as well as with consumers and that its ad order entry system now supports browser- or PDA-based order placement. (011) {34} 91-573-0808, e-mail: acheca@protec.sa.

39. Publishing Business Systems Inc.: With its acquisition of the Canadian classified system maker Informatel earlier this year, PBS now can offer ad order entry and classified pagination to its stable of products that has traditionally centered around a good circulation system. The merger of the product lines now allows the company to provide systems that integrate the newspaper customer's data, regardless of whether that customer is buying a liner or complaining that the paper landed on the roof. The AdPlus product provides all the standard classified and display order entry features, as well as supporting on-line order entry. (847) 381-9950, e-mail: marketing@pbs.com.

40. QuickWire Labs: Lately this Canadian company has been focusing on providing products that help group newspaper companies avoid reliance upon traditional wire services to help them move copy and photos between their various offices. Because QuickWire now can send and receive files over the Internet "from anywhere on the planet" -- thusly eliminating the need for wire service infrastructure -- it has garnered the attention of Reuters as well as other newspaper feature services. In addition, the company's QuickTrac product has been upgraded to use the Windows Server 2000, as well as now having a Windows client, making it completely cross-platform. (905) 645-2085, e-mail: quickwire@quickwire.com.

41. SAXoTECH Inc.: My, how times change. It was just a few short years ago that SAXoTech was given one of the first licenses for Quark's CopyDesk text-editor, thereby tying the company directly to the page layout giant. This year, SAXoTech is heralding its integration of Adobe InCopy and InDesign into SAXoPress, its editorial front-end system. (As with many suppliers, the company now offers customers a choice between QXP and ID). In addition, SAXoTech says that it will preview the next release of SAXoPress, which provides brand-new clients for Mac OS X and Windows XP, at the show. And the company's Publicus on-line publishing system -- the product was chosen by the New York Times Regional Group for all its properties -- now supports full-page PDFs that are automatically sent over by SAXopress, as well as a new browser-based editing interface and a display-ad inserts module. (301) 294-0805, e-mail: ussales@saxotech.com.

42. Shoom Inc.: One of the basic problems of implementing new technology is that it takes time -- even what appears at the outset to be the simplest thing can turn into a technical and administrative nightmare. Shoom, whose iTearSheets product was one of the pioneers of the digital tearsheet industry, says that implementation of its product requires no change to the paper's PDF workflow. "Recently we brought the Calgary Herald on-line in four days and that's no bull," says the company's Joe Scarfi. New this year for NEXPO are integrated electronic invoicing and e-proofing modules, in addition to an announcement that the company will develop and maintain a tearsheet portal for a major U.S. advertiser. (800) 446-6658, e-mail: info@shoom.com.

43. The Software Construction Co.: New this year at NEXPO will be an addition to the company's MediaServer archiving product, the Replication Module. This feature allows a publisher to keep a hot backup of the archive at a remote location; the module can be configured to work in real-time or set up to run only at select times of the day. In addition, the company will be showing its plug-in kit for Adobe Photoshop on Mac OS X, as well as upgraded versions of its MediaServer and MediaServer Commerce and Tearsheets modules. In addition, the company will be showing its latest customization of the Adobe Graphics Server, which it calls the MediaFactory AGS Channel. (770) 205-5756, e-mail: sales@swcc.com.

44. Software Consulting Services LLC: Earlier, I mentioned that there aren't many companies that I have tracked for 14 years that have had the same management the entire time -- here's another one. Since 1975 Richard Cichelli has built products that innovate and has imported products that are classy. Congratulations Richard. To prove this point, SCC says that it will show InLay LE, which places ad dummies from its Layout-8000 product (or any standard dummying product) into Adobe InDesign. In addition, the application will also place images into complex ads. This product builds upon the company's longtime development of Quark XTensions (similar features are available in its SCS/LinX) and Mac OS 9 and OS X versions are available now, while a Windows version will be developed later this year. In addition, the company will show its full product line, which includes the wonderful Wilkenson Scoop editorial system (InCopy and InDesign are now integrated into it). (610) 746-7700, e-mail: rjc@nscs.fast.net.

45. TECNAVIA S.A.: This longtime Swiss developer of newspaper photo imaging systems is bringing its new NewsMemory product to the United States for the first time at NEXPO 2003. NewsMemory, an on-line full-page archiving system, automatically turns newspaper pages into easily displayed -- and small -- files that can be seen by all web browsers (XML is involved here). The new product is inexpensive -- the company quotes a $45 price per edition for the conversion -- and it will also sell you its e-Binder and Edicola products, which can get the pages up on the Internet and searchable. (952) 435-6744, e-mail: info@tecnavia.com.

46. Unisys Corp.: While the tune may be familiar -- integration of InDesign and InCopy, ability to run on latest operating systems including Mac OS X and Windows XP, addition of a web publishing option, use of XML -- the fact that it's being sung by Unisys is a big deal. The bedrock foundation of its Hermes editorial system was a proprietary text editor and a proprietary page layout application. So the move to InDesign is an important shift for the supplier, but it represents only part of the change: Unisys has "fully exposed" the application programming interface (API) of the Hermes repository, allowing any extensible application -- including the Adobe products and Microsoft Word -- to use the repository. In addition the company will show the latest updates to its advertising system, which includes a Data File Interface module, which expands customers' options when it comes to on-line publishing. (800) 874-8647, ext. 678, e-mail: globalmedia@unisys.com.

47. The Weather Underground: After the departure of meteorologist Mike Smith from the world of newspaper weather pages, it looked like there would be only one source left. But stepping up to the plate this year is The Weather Underground, a company with offices in Ann Arbor, Mich., and San Francisco that started life in 1995 as a the Web's first on-line weather service. The company will custom design and deliver a digitized daily weather page at reasonable prices. In addition, the company offers not only generic web weather, but also a customized weather page for your web site. (415) 543-4806, autobrand@wunderground.com.

48. Wirecomm Corp.: Founded by former Los Angeles Times technology executive Wayne Parrack, Wirecomm and its predecessor companies have provided Los Angeles' City News Service Inc. with a reliable wire service distribution system for decades. Now the company is expanding into providing a variety of products and this is its first NEXPO. Wirecomm will be showing its Remote Newsroom (a basic editorial workflow system that expedites filing back to the home office), IIMs (the company's take on instant messaging, its interface will be familiar to those who have worked on traditional editorial front-end systems), NetD (a network-based directory system that can ease access to wire service directories) and its traditional WireCap product (which allows a personal computer to capture wire service transmissions). Conflict-of-interest alert: During WireComm's startup phase, Parrack hired me to give him some advice; I told him to spend his retirement doing something besides be an industry supplier. He ignored me. (805) 924-1030, e-mail: aparrack@wirecommcorp.com.

49. Worldwide Online Ad Design Ltd.: Another soldier in the web-based ad layout application wars, Ad Wizard provides templates so that customers can build their semi-display and display advertising in a way that makes the ad look professionally designed. The product is provided in a service bureau environment, so there are no capital costs, yet the publisher can customize its site, making all the decisions about ad size, scheduling, templates, delivery methods and pricing. (604) 7331-9911, e-mail: sales@onlineaddesign.com.

50. Zope Corp.: I saved the best for last. The whole Open Source software movement excites me, and Zope -- an Open Source content management system -- excites me a lot. In the world of Open Source, software is usually developed by volunteers, who manage development, keep bug lists and the like. Zope is different in that the product was developed by Zope Corp. -- a commercial company with antecedents in the newspaper industry -- and Zope Corp. continues to be the maintaining organization for the Zope application (the company distributes Zope freely to the world under an Open Source license). So there are hundreds of Zope-managed web sites all over the world, running on Linux, Windows 2000 and even Mac OS X, which have been customized by the users of the software (into this category fall Fredericksburg, Va.'s The Free-Lance Star and San Diego's Union Tribune). But Zope Corp. also sells a customized version of the software -- Zope For Media or Z4M -- to publishers and broadcasters (into this category fall the Boston Globe's Boston.com and all web sites run by Viacom, which include CBS News and all CBS-owned TV stations). Zope is a fantastic application (I've had it running here in the office off and on for a year); Z4M is an exciting customization of it and the Zope dudes are great. Get thee to this booth. (540) 361-1700, e-mail: sales@zope.com. #

From THE COLE PAPERS, May 2003Copyright © 2003, All Rights Reserved.

From THE COLE PAPERS, May 2003
Copyright © 2003, All Rights Reserved.