COLE'S NEWSWIRE, Jan. 14, 1998

Jan. 14, 1998
Vol. 4, No. 2

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, a publishing solutions supplier based in Bedford, Mass., has announced the sale of its Enterprise advertising system to the TELEGRAM & GAZETTE (109k, morning) of Worcester, Mass. The 30-seat system will run on Windows NT servers, PC clients and an Oracle database.

Included in the purchase is Release 5 of Atex's classified pagination software and an interface to EdgCapture, credit card verification software made by Edgil Associates of Chelmsford, Mass.

Atex is on the World-Wide Web at http://www.atex.com/.

THE COLE PAPERS
Reorg, a dreaded word among many in the computer industry who suffer the consequences of a need to reorganize an ailing company, are a fact of life among newspapers, too. The difference: Newspapers reorganize themselves to meet new challenges, not just survive. In the January 1998 issue of THE COLE PAPERS, Correspondent L. Carol Christopher recounts the experiences of three major metros which refashioned themselves to meet new goals related to technology, content and procedures.

The January issue also looks at the success one supplier of classified software and services for the Web has enjoyed, the folly of cutting corners on hardware when installing a new system, and the deal struck between Morris Communications Corp. of Augusta, Ga., and SAXoTECH International of Denmark under which Morris will use SAXoTECH publishing solutions at all its 31 newspapers as well as market SAXoTECH products in the United States.

For more about the January 1998 issue of THE COLE PAPERS, visit The Cole Group on the Web at http://colegroup.com/.

NATURAL INTELLIGENCE INC.
Natural Intelligence, a developer of Java-based software with headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., has introduced its Corporate Java Consulting Division. The new business arm will connect the knowledge the company has about Java with companies that want to use the cross-platform database connectivity technology to meet corporate needs.

Among the staff working in the new division are two people from the recently closed Roaster Technologies Inc.: Devon Carew, who had been Roasters vice president of research and development, and John Dhabolt, the former CEO of Roaster.

The new division is supported by Natural Intelligences training and R&D departments.

Natural Intelligence is on the Web at http://www.natural.com/.

NEWSINC.
A healthy industry looks to still more gains in the new year: That was the message newspaper executives and analysts got in December at the annual PaineWebber Media Conference in New York. Increases in ad revenue and stable newsprint prices point to a great '98, conferees were told by publishing industry analysts and executives.

The Jan. 5 issue of NEWSINC. also reports on the growing presence of MediaNews Group in Southern California, interviews the new -- and first -- publisher of the SACRAMENTO BEE, and examines the growing niche in technology-oriented publishing occupied by a subsidiary of the Washington Post Co.

For more about the Jan. 5 issue of NEWSINC., visit The Cole Group on the Web at http://colegroup.com/.

SEYBOLD SEMINARS
Industry consultant David M. Cole will direct a day-long seminar on newspapers and new media at the second of three seminars comprising Seybold Seminars New York. The Seybold/Cole Newspaper and New Media seminar on March 18 will be sandwiched between the Seybold/Wired Web Publisher 98 seminars -- cosponsored by WIRED magazine -- on March 16-17 and the Seybold Publishing Systems 98 Conference on March 19-20.

More than 25,000 people are expected to attend the conference and associated trade show, where more than 300 technology companies will display their latest wares.

For more information, visit Seybold on the Web at http://www.seyboldseminars.com/ and The Cole Group at http://www.colegroup.com/.

SPANLINK COMMUNICATIONS INC.
Minneapolis-based Spanlink, a supplier of computer/telephone integration and interactive voice response software, has signed an agreement to purchase the FastCall product line from Aurora Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Comdial Corp. FastCall is in use on more than 36,000 call center desktops, where it handles inbound and outbound calls with such features as rules-based screen data displays, caller ID, voice and data transfers, and automated dialing.

Spanlink said FastCall would complement its ExtraAgent call center software and WebCall tool for connecting to a call center from a web site.

Spanlink is on the Web at http://www.spanlink.com/.

TRENDWATCH
TrendWatch, a publishing industry consulting firm based in Harrisville, R.I., has found that the Apple Macintosh retains a strong presence in the printing world. TrendWatch, in its just-released fall 1997 survey, reports that 42 percent of respondents said they plan to buy a Macintosh computer in the next 12 months -- making the Mac the No. 1 planned purchase named in the survey.

Among the respondents, 60 percent of service bureaus and color separators said they have budgeted to buy Macs. Windows 95 workstations were the choice of 33 percent of the respondents, while Windows NT was named by 12 percent.

The survey, which is conducted every six months, is based on a response rate of 23 percent of surveys sent to almost 3000 statistically representative printing and pre-press businesses.

The survey, the seventh conducted by TrendWatch, also found that one firm in five was planning to expand its facilities in 1998. Computer-to-plate technology was budgeted for as well, with 17 percent of commercial printers and 13 percent of color separators saying they plan to buy CTP equipment.

TrendWatch is on the Web at http://www.trend-watch.com/.

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COLE'S NEWSWIRE is compiled by Pete Wetmore and distributed by The Cole Group, publishers of THE COLE PAPERS and NEWSINC., 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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