COLE'S NEWSWIRE, Nov. 12, 1997

Nov. 12, 1997
Vol. 3, No. 46

The NEWSWIRE is a weekly distribution of information about the sales and installations of publishing technology and the latest news on new products developed by suppliers to the industry.

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ATEX MEDIA SOLUTIONS
Atex Media Solutions, a publishing systems supplier based in Bedford, Mass., has announced two recent transactions with the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group.

Atex recently closed the sale of a 45-seat AdVantage advertising system to the PRESS DEMOCRAT (93k, morning) of Santa Rosa, Calif. The AdVantage system will replace one made by System Integrators Inc. of Sacramento, Calif. The PRESS DEMOCRAT installation includes an Oracle database running on Windows NT servers; Atex software for pricing, ad makeup and data transfer to a billing system; an interface to EdgCapture credit-checking software, made by Edgil Associates Inc. of Chelmsford, Mass., and integration services for linking the Atex system with pagination software made by Managing Editor Inc. of Jenkintown, Pa.

Earlier, Atex finished installing an AdVantage system at another NYT regional group paper, the OCALA (Fla.) STAR-BANNER (46k, morning). Atex is on the World-Wide Web at http://www.atex.com/.

DIGITAL ART EXCHANGE INC.
DAX, a Boston-based provider of connectivity solutions for digital communications, has installed its first PRI configuration in Canada, at Networks, a division of St. Joseph Corp. in Toronto, Ontario. With the new MegaLink -- Canadian terminology for PRI -- solution, Networks is providing a 23-channel file transfer to its clients, which include Sears Canada.

DAX is on the Web at http://dax-it.com/.

FUTURETENSE INC.
FutureTense, a supplier of web-based solutions based in Acton, Mass., has announced the acquisition of Mission Critical Technologies Inc. of Concord, Mass. Mission Critical, a privately held company, markets software for managing and tracking components that make up classified and display advertisements. Mission Critical has installed its PC-based systems at more than 30 newspapers, including the BOSTON GLOBE, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER and DALLAS MORNING NEWS. The papers use the systems to take in ad data via modem, the Internet or fax.

FutureTense will integrate Mission Critical's technology into its recently announced FutureTense Internet Publishing System, as well as support Mission Critical's current customers.

FutureTense is on the Web at http://www.futuretense.com/.

GEAC PUBLISHING SYSTEMS
Geac, formerly Collier-Jackson Inc., a division of Geac Computers Inc. based in Tampa, Fla., has announced two recent sales:

-- Paddock Publications of Arlington Heights, Ill., which publishes the DAILY HERALD (132k, morning): World Class Series software for advertising, preprint management, bad debt tracking, general ledger and accounts payable, as well as a Layout-8000 interface and VisionShift Attache (Geac's advertising sales automation tool).

-- THE STAR-LEDGER (406k, morning), Newark, N.J.: World Class Series circulation, advertising and classified modules.

Geac Publishing Systems is on the Web at http://www.publishingsystems.geac.com/.

NEWSINC.
NEWSINC., the newsletter covering the business of the newspaper business, reports that third-quarter financial results for newspaper groups were handsome and healthy. Analysts forecast good returns for the fourth quarter as well. And a review of newspaper companies' stocks finds they fared just fine during the stock market's roller coaster ride the last week of October.

NEWSINC. also surveys the surfeit of non-English products newspapers are publishing -- some new, some venerable -- and how their bottom lines are doing. In the new media realm, NEWSINC. also profiles the highly successful Zip2 and talks with several key clients, who were won over by Zip2's customer service and promising business model.

For more about the Nov. 10 issue of NEWSINC., visit The Cole Group on the Web at http://colegroup.com/.

NTH DEGREE SOFTWARE
Nth degree, a production software supplier based in Bellevue, Wash., has announced that it will collaborate with ScenicSoft Inc., a supplier of page-imposition software based in Everett, Wash., to integrate nth degree's Proteus publication make-up, assembly and production system with ScenicSoft's Preps imposition software.

The new interface in the Proteus software permits publishers to export publication information directly into Preps' standardized file formats, and takes advantage of the production workflows supported by Preps. Printers no longer will need to type in data telling the imagesetter where each page element belongs.

QUARK INC.
Quark, a Denver-based supplier of desktop publishing software, has begun shipping Quark XPress 4.0 for the MacOS and Windows. Upgrades and site licenses will be available through Quark's offices in the United States, Singapore, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands and Scandinavia.

Quark XPress Passport 4.0, the multilingual version of XPress, will support Danish, Dutch, French, German, International English, U.S. English, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish, and Swiss-German. Single-language East Asian versions in Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese, will be available later.

XPress 4.0 has more than 75 new features, including Bezier-based drawing, a suite of features for long-document production, and an interface with pop-out tools and tabbed dialog boxes for easier navigation. Users will have character-based style sheets, can use an enhanced find/change function to search and replace style sheets, specify text to wrap around all sides of an object in a column and zoom to 800 percent.

Quark, which said Quark XPress 3.32 will continue to be available for as long as supplies last, is on the Web at http://www.quark.com/.

SCITEX CORP. LTD.
Scitex, a production systems suppler based in Herzlia, Israel, with U.S. offices in Bedford, Mass., has announced that its third-quarter revenues were 20 percent higher than the year-earlier period.

Scitex had net income of $2.2 million or five cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 1997. In 1996, Scitex reported a net loss of $151 million or $3.53 per share. Revenues for the quarter were $171 million, up 20 percent from $142 million in the third quarter of 1996. Cash flow from operations in the third quarter of 1997 was $9 million, compared with $5 million in the third quarter of 1996.

Scitex is on the Web at http://www.scitex.com/.

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COLE'S NEWSWIRE is compiled by Pete Wetmore and distributed by The Cole Group, publishers of THE COLE PAPERS, COLE'S GUIDE TO PUBLISHING SYSTEMS and consultants to newspapers and magazines worldwide. To receive more information about The Cole Group, send e-mail to: info@colegroup.com.

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