COLE'S NEWSWIRE, March 18, 1998

March 18, 1998
Vol. 4, No. 11

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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AMERICAN COMPUTER INNOVATORS INC.
ACI, a publishing solutions supplier based in Framingham, Mass., has announced three recently signed contracts to install its OpenPages software.

A system of more than 40 seats, including an archive database, will be installed at the LEWISTON (Maine) SUN-JOURNAL (42k, morning). The DAILY PRESS (104k, morning) of Newport News, Va., has contracted for a 200-seat system that includes the ACI Editorial Assignment module. The newsweekly NETWORK WORLD of Framingham, Mass., will put in a 50-seat system with auto-import for remote sites.

ACI also announced a marketing agreement with Mactive Inc., an advertising systems supplier based in Melbourne, Fla. Each company will sell the other's products, and they will work together to unite their data models into a single database that would serve both editorial and advertising departments.

ACI is on the World-Wide Web at http://www.aci-openpages.com/.

ATEX MEDIA SOLUTIONS INC.
Atex, a publishing systems supplier based in Bedford, Mass., has announced that at the end of March, it will begin shipping the Year 2000-compliant version of its Enterprise advertising system, Release 1.4.1, as well as Release 5.5 of its Classified Pagination product.

Enhancements to Enterprise include improved tools for tracking performance, with enhanced features in the contact and customer relations functions. Classified Pagination also has been enhanced, with such features as user-selected date formats.

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

INFORMIX CORP.
Informix, a database technology provider based in Menlo Park, Calif., has announced that New York-based Associated Press now is using its Informix Dynamic Server with Universal Data Option to post news on The WIRE, the AP's web-based information service. The server manages distribution of graphics, photos, audio and video, using the Informix Content Management System.

The AP moves about 1000 photos and 1000 stories a day through the system, which runs on a Sun Solaris Enterprise 3000 platform.

The AP is on the Web at http://wire.ap.org/. Informix is at http://www.informix.com/.

LANTANA RESEARCH CORP.
Lantana Research, a pre-press production software supplier based in Fremont, Calif., has introduced Crackerjack Pilot, an option for its Crackerjack plug-in to Adobe Acrobat Exchange. With Pilot, a user may set up a series of folders that are associated with specific output devices or contain application-specific output parameters. Once folders are established, documents using the Portable Document Format (PDF) may simply be dragged and dropped into the proper folder for output.

Lantana is on the Web at http://www.lantanarips.com/.

MULTI-AD SERVICES INC.
Multi-Ad, an advertising solutions supplier based in Peoria, Ill., has released version 1.1 of its Creator2 display ad makeup program. Enhancements include full compatibility with Adobe Illustrator 7, support of Adobe Type Manager Deluxe 4.0.3 and keyboard-driven font selection.

Creator2 also supports AppleScript. An upgrade will cost $299 until June 30. For more information, visit Multi-Ad on the Web at http://www.creator2.com/.

NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
"Small Market Solutions" is the subject of the first session planned for the annual convention of the NAA, a professional association based in Vienna, Va. The convention will be April 19-22 in Dallas. The interactive session will spotlight strategies that newspapers in smaller markets can use to improve products and services, reduce expenses and raise income.

The next day, the NAA will commemorate the 150th year of the Associated Press at a luncheon, followed by a session with celebrities and athletes who will discuss what it means to be a role model. For registration information, call Jeff Sparks at (703) 902-1792.

The NAA is on the Web at http://www.naa.org/.

NEWSINC.
The death of New Century Network has many lessons for the industry: newspaper companies can work together if the structure is right, aggregating content isn't a good idea, universal ad sales on the Web are a good idea. NEWSINC. Editor and Publisher David M. Cole details the demise of NCN in the March 16 issue of NEWSINC.

The issue also reports on the positive response to the planned merger of two newsprint suppliers, profiles the publishing Paxtons of Paducah, talks with the editor of a new on-line journalism review and takes a gander at a new print-broadcast alliance in the San Francisco Bay Area (details at 10, maybe later).

For more about the March 16 issue of NEWSINC., visit The Cole Group on the Web at http://colegroup.com/.

SOUTHWEST SOFTWARE INC.
Southwest, a publishing software supplier based in Austin, Texas, has introduced Color Encore for Scanners, a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop that uses Apple ColorSync technology to calibrate incoming scans. A calibration scan of the Kodak IT-8 international standard color target is used to set up calibration parameters for slides, transparencies and prints.

When preparing to scan an image, a user selects Color Encore for Scanners from the Import menu, picks the profile suited to the medium being used and scans, with the correct calibration automatically applied as the scan is made.

The application, which runs on Macintosh computers and works with Photoshop version 3.0 or higher, costs $295.

WILLOWSIX INC.
WillowSix, a proofing device supplier based in San Clemente, Calif., has introduced Rightproof, a proofing system for Macs and Mac clones. Rightproof uses a single profile to calibrate all monitors in a production area, providing what the company calls a 90 to 95 percent accurate interactive soft proof.

Rightproof calibrates monitors to the characteristics of the press and paper used in printing, including paper color, wet-on-wet ink trapping, ink density and dot gain. Rightproof can be set up to proof for newsprint, heatset, sheet fed and Matchprint media.

WillowSix is on the Web at http://members.aol.com/willowsix/.

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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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