COLE'S NEWSWIRE, Nov. 18, 1998

Nov. 18, 1998
Vol. 4, 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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ADOUT
AdOut, the Van Nuys, Calif.-based provider of outsourced advertising production services, has announced that the LOS ANGELES TIMES (1.1m, morning) has given all ad production responsibility to AdOut, quintupling the company's volume with the newspaper to 50,000 SAU inches a week.

The contract, which will lead to the hiring of more than 100 ad production people by AdOut, calls for production of 7000 inches of high-end advertising work. AdOut also provides outsourcing ad-makeup services to the LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS (201k, morning) and TORRANCE BREEZE (84k, morning).

AdOut is on the World-Wide Web at http://www.adout.com/.

ATEX MEDIA SOLUTIONS INC.
Atex, a publishing systems supplier based in Bedford, Mass., has announced the sale of its Enterprise advertising system to the GRAND RAPIDS (Mich.) PRESS (140k, evening). The contract calls for 50 seats to be installed, replacing a legacy J-11 system.

Ten of the seats will be used by parent company Booth Newspaper Group, which has eight papers in Michigan. Booth handles advertising -- recruitment, classified, travel and national -- from Grand Rapids for all eight newspapers. Atex will provide connectivity to various systems at the newspapers from Booth's Grand Rapids headquarters.

The PRESS also bought Sun servers and an Oracle database, as well as Atex's R5 classified pagination software. Atex is on the Web at http://www.atex.com/.

CYBERGRAPHIC SYSTEMS INC.
Cybergraphic, a publishing systems supplier based in Melbourne, Australia, with U.S. offices in Burlington, Mass., has announced it has suspended work on its contract with the German publishing groups Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) and Zeitungsgruppe Thringen (ZGT).

Cybergraphic had signed a contract with WAZ to provide an advertising solution to replace an Atex system that over two years would grow to about 1000 seats. Cybergraphic said it hopes to resume work on the project once "critical" commercial and procedural issues are resolved.

Cybergraphic is on the Web at http://www.cybergraphic.com.au/.

GEAC PUBLISHING SYSTEMS INC.
Geac, an advertising solutions supplier based in Tampa, Fla., has announced the recent sale of its VisionShift advertising package to the FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM (228k, morning). The Texas paper is buying classified billing, sales force automation, pre-print and layout tools for 129 users in-house and 80 laptop users.

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

GEI GRAPHIC ENTERPRISES
GEI, an output solutions supplier based in North Canton, Ohio, has announced the installation of its 50th TECSA large-format copy dot scanner in the last 18 months. The scanner, which can digitize already-screened camera-ready ads, has been sold to such U.S. newspapers as the CHICAGO TRIBUNE and DAYTON (Ohio) DAILY NEWS.

GEI is on the Web at http://www.geiohio.com/.

HARLEQUIN INC.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based provider of pre-press technologies announced that it has laid off 14 percent of its workforce, which observers estimate to be about 40 people. In addition, the company closed its Menlo Park, Calif. office.

The maker of the ScriptWorks raster image processing software said that that staff reductions would make it "possible for us to strengthen our resources where they are most needed." The company said that the remaining staff count would be 250.

Harlequin is on the Web at http://www.harlequin.com/.

INFONAUTICS
Infonautics, an on-line information provider based in Wayne, Pa., has seen its stock shoot up in value since the introduction of Company Sleuth, a web search service that delivers free e-mails to subscribers showing where to find information about companies. Company Sleuth watches for such things as insider trades, press releases and patent issuances.

Shares reached a 52-week high Nov. 13, rising to 10 1/2 before closing at seven. Infonautics closed Nov. 17 at 5 1/4, down 1 27/32. Infonautics, which is on the Web at http://www.infonautics.com/, also operates Electric Library, a subscriber-based news clipping service.

NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
The NAA, a trade group based in Vienna, Va., has announced the keynote speakers who will address sessions of the fourth annual Newspaper Operations SuperConference Jan. 10-15 in Orlando, Fla.

Opening the two-day pre-press segment will be Chuck Bland, chief operating officer of Quark Inc. of Denver. Other pre-press sessions will address color management, pagination, PDF workflow, computer-to-plate technology and digital asset management.

For registration information, visit the NAA on-line at http://www.naa.orgr/conferences/super99.

NOVA PUBLISHING SYSTEMS CORP.
NOVA, a publishing solutions supplier based in Auburn, Calif., has announced the recent sale of its FaxAction inbound fax and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system to the SAN GABRIEL (Calif.) VALLEY TRIBUNE (58k, morning), ROCHESTER (N.Y.) DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE (175k, morning), CINCINNATI ENQUIRER (196k, morning) and SIOUX FALLS (S.D.) ARGUS LEADER (51k, morning);

NOVA also announced the sale of its AutoBASE inventory and on-line software for putting auto dealerships on the Web to THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW (82k, morning) of Greensburg, Pa.

The company further announced that all the outstanding shares in its parent business, Associated Information Systems Inc., also of Auburn, had been acquired by Group West Ltd. of Vancouver, B.C., Canada for approximately $2.97 million. The companies said current management of both AISI and NOVA would remain in place and that Group West would market the AISI/NOVA product line in Canada, while also providing AISI/NOVA customers with additional integration services.

NOVA is on the Web at http://www.novapub.com/; Group West is at http://www3.stockgroup.com/gpw/.

QUARK INC.
Quark, a publishing solutions supplier based in Denver, has announced known compatibility problems between its Quark XPress layout software and Mac OS 8.5.

Describing the problems as "minor," Quark said testing has found that page icons do not highlight in the document layout palette for clicked-on pages; keyboard shortcuts for switching from one application to another are identical to Quark's shortcuts for moving through the toolbar, and XPress versions older than 4.0 will crash if a user attempts to enter the Edit Trap dialog box. For details, visit http://www.versiontracker.com/systems/system85.shtml.

Quark is on the Web at http://www.quark.com/.

SOFTAD GROUP
SoftAd, a supplier of sales force automation tools based in Mill Valley, Calif., has announced the recent sales of its SoftAd Media SalesExcelerator to the DALLAS MORNING NEWS (480k, morning) and ROYAL GAZETTE (19k, morning) of Hamilton, Bermuda.

Both papers are implementing SoftAd's modules for presentation, proposals, comparisons and archiving. The MORNING NEWS additionally is using the Customer and Manage modules, while the ROYAL GAZETTE is getting the Design module.

SoftAd is on the Web at http://www.softad.com/.

SYSTEM INTEGRATORS INC.
SII, a publishing systems supplier based in Sacramento, has introduced Coyote Express, a remote Windows client for editorial users. Express provides dial-up access to a newspaper system via the Internet as well as off-line storage.

Other features include keyboard shortcuts, message lists, file backup, keyword search in directories and a "collection directory" for gathering a list of stories from several directories.

SII is on the Web at http://www.sii.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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