COLE'S NEWSWIRE, April 15, 1998

April 15, 1998
Vol. 4, No. 15

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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ADVANCED TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS
ATS, a publishing systems supplier based in Wilmington, Mass., has announced the sale of its AdVisor advertising system to the Newspaper Agency Corp. of Salt Lake City, which provides advertising support services to the SALT LAKE TRIBUNE (130k, morning) and DESERET NEWS (62k, evening) under a joint operating agreement.

The installation, which will replace an Atex Integrated Advertising System, will include 80 300 megahertz Hewlett Packard workstations running Windows 95 linked to Compaq Windows NT servers. ATS expects its system to be fully on-line by year's end. AdVisor integrates into a single ATS-designed interface three software packages -- SeaGate Crystal Reports, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.

ATS is on the Web at http://www.atsusa.com/.

AGFA DIVISION, BAYER CORP.
Agfa, an imaging products supplier based in Wilmington, Mass., has introduced Windows-based versions of its ColorTune and ColorTune PRO color management applications. A user can establish profiles for input, display and output devices, then quickly process color images for color quality and adherence to in-house color standards.

When used with a spectrophotometer, ColorTune PRO can create precise profiles for given offset printing presses. It also supports Pantone Hexachrome six-color separation technology. ColorTune is compatible with all versions of ColorSync.

Agfa, which is on the Web at http://www.agfahome.com/, plans to sell ColorTune for Windows for $695 and ColorTune PRO for $3,500, beginning May 1.

APPLIED VOICE RECOGNITION
Applied Voice, a Houston-based developer of voice recognition systems, has announced that is has signed a letter of intent to merge with Voice It Worldwide Inc. Applied Voice shareholders will receive six-tenths of one share for each share of Voice It stock.

Applied Voice makes VoiceCOMMANDER, a speech-to-text dictation application that runs on Windows and supports Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect. VoiceCOMMANDER will be marketed by the combined sales forces of Applied Voice and Voice It through 10,000 retail outlets in 16 countries.

The companies have begun to work on a digital recorder version of VoiceCOMMANDER for release in June 1998. Applied Voice is on the Web at http://www.voicecommander.com/.

ATEX MEDIA SOLUTIONS
Atex, a publishing systems supplier based in Bedford, Mass., has announced it has installed Year 2000-compliant Atex-11 editorial and advertising software at its two Y2K beta sites, the LOUISVILLE (Ky.) COURIER-JOURNAL (232k, morning) and NEWSDAY (565k, morning) of Melville, N.Y. The COURIER-JOURNAL has begun producing its editions with Atex-11 ahead of the planned timetable.

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

AURUM SOFTWARE
Aurum, a provider of customer service software based in Santa Clara, Calif., has announced that the ATLANTA JOURNAL & CONSTITUTION (297k, morning; 109k, evening) has selected Aurum to install sales automation tools for 150 users in six offices. The Aurum Customer Enterprise system will be used for local and national ad sales for both print and on-line products.

The system will run on a Hewlett-Packard server, using an Oracle database to replace paper-based sales tracking, including tear-sheet retrieval and distribution.

Aurum is on the World-Wide Web at http://www.aurum.com/.

CE ENGINEERING PUBLISHING SYSTEMS INC.
CE, a publishing solutions supplier based in Loomis, Calif., has announced that its imaging division will begin providing the California Newspaper Publishers Association with a paperless tear sheet service, sending tear sheets to advertisers automatically.

CE is on the Web at http://www.ceengineering.com/.

IMX DISTRIBUTING
IMX, an imaging software supplier based in Alpharetta, Ga., has introduced version 3.4.2 of its ScanPrepPro imaging handling application. New features include the ability to save preferences with settings, a submenu for different kinds of transparencies, two resolution levels for printing through an ink jet device, bolstered preferences for an RGB archive, and support for additional scanners from AGFA, Microtek and Epson.

For a free trial version of ScanPrepPro 3.4.2, visit IMX on the Web at http://www.imxscanprep.com/.

NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
The head of the NAA, a professional association based in Vienna, Va., "guarantees" that this year's annual get-together will be "a big convention" in keeping with its host state, Texas. More than 1200 people are expected to gather April 19-22 in Dallas for four days of sessions and addresses,

NAA President and CEO John Strum said the convention will "assess our industry's achievements and analyze the challenges we will face." Speakers include Texas Gov. George Bush, Times Mirror Chairman Mark Willes and outgoing NAA Chairman David Cox, former president and CEO of Cowles Media Co., which was acquired by the McClatchy Co. in March.

For registration information, contact Jeff Sparks, the NAA's registrar, at (703) 902-1792. The NAA is on the Web at http://www.naa.org/.

NEWSINC.
The Associated Press still makes dollars and sense, writes David M. Cole, editor and publisher of NEWSINC. At 150, the AP continues to seek to serve members while keeping their costs low, Cole writes in his cover essay of the April 13 issue of NEWSINC. Inside, Correspondent Julius Duscha takes a close look at the wire service's achievements and shortfalls, talking with newspaper and AP executives about news coverage and the agency's outreach efforts in technology and video newsgathering.

Also in the April 13 issue, Senior Editor Pete Wetmore describes the scene in Jonesboro, Ark., where AP technology and a resident staffer made the difference in getting photos of the Westside school shootings on the wire. Wetmore also talks with Roger Mudd, the former broadcast journalist, about the shape of the news industry as Mudd prepares to join the board of directors of Media General Inc. Wetmore also interviews executives from CitySearch and Zip2 as they crank up to merge their companies.

For more about the April 13 issue of NEWSINC., visit The Cole Group on the Web at http://colegroup.com/.

PUBLISHING BUSINESS SYSTEMS
PBS, a business-office software supplier based in Des Plaines, Ill., has announced it is now taking orders for MediaPlus Sales Insight, a software package that provides new ways of looking at company sales data. Sales Insight is a Windows-based program that can display data in many ways, using a variety of colors and graphs to generate sales reports on an individual basis.

PBS is on the Web at http://www.pbs.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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