COLE'S NEWSWIRE, Feb. 10, 1999

Feb. 10, 1999
Vol. 5, No. 6

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.

To be removed from this list, send e-mail to: macjordomo@colegroup.com with the words UNSUBSCRIBE NEWSWIRE as the first line of the text. These missives are archived on the World-Wide Web at http://colegroup.com/NW/.

To submit material for consideration, please deliver electronically to news@colegroup.com.

ATEX MEDIA SOLUTIONS
Atex, a publishing systems supplier based in Bedford, Mass., has announced the recent sale of its Enterprise advertising system to NEWSDAY, the 572,000-circulation daily serving Long Island from Melville, N.Y. NEWSDAY also bought an upgrade to its Atex Architect, a publication planning and page layout product, taking it from UNIX to Windows NT.

The new system will complement a classified system bought in June, for a total of 375 Enterprise seats -- the largest such installation in North America. NEWSDAY publishes a daily tabloid paper and an 80-zone weekly newspaper called THIS WEEK.

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

BITSTREAM INC.
Bitstream, a publishing systems supplier based in Cambridge, Mass., has announced that it will unveil a new division, PageFlex Inc., at Seybold Seminars/Boston March 1-5 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. PageFlex will provide on-demand publishing services with tools using the eXtensible Markup Language.

Bitstream will introduce both PageFlex the company and PageFlex the product line, which includes PageFlex Designer for importing and converting Quark XPress pages into PageFlex templates.

Bitstream is on the Web at http://www.bitstream.com/.

THE COLE PAPERS
It's alphabet soup deja vu, writes COLE PAPERS Editor & Publisher David M. Cole writes in the February issue. Addressing the ongoing project to develop a News Markup Language, which would facilitate cross-platform storage and production of information, Cole says the approach is latest in a series of efforts to make it easier for newspapers to shuffle data around.

Inside, contributor J.T. "Tom" Johnson takes readers to the scene of the latest meetings on what is called on-line grammar, relaying the progress the group has made and the issues it has identified. Also inside, Correspondent George Powell reviews Macworld 1999, finding it a pleasing sight for a 14-year Mac aficionado, and Cole reports from the SuperConference in Florida and the Harris Publishing Systems Corp.'s eighth annual industry session, this one examining the ins and outs of dealing with digital advertising.

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

CONSYGEN CORP.
Phoenix-based ConSyGen, a provider of Year 2000 remediation assistance, has announced a contract with the 378,000-circulation SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, its first with a major newspaper, to make its circulation system Y2K-compliant.

ConSyGen will work with the newspaper's technical staff to make the system ready for Jan. 1 by modifying software to change the date window -- the reference point for determining the year on a two-digit basis -- rather than overhaul systems to accommodate four digits for each year.

ConSyGen is at http://www.consygen.com/.

HARRIS PUBLISHING SYSTEMS CORP.
Harris, a publishing systems supplier based in Melbourne, Fla., has announced the release of new remote entry software for editorial users and recent upgrade sales to three newspapers.

The remote writing and editing tool, Harris Correspondent, runs within a standard-issue web browser. Remote users can sign on to their newspaper's Harris NewsMaker system via the Internet or a remote access server; no Harris software is needed at the client end. Harris Correspondent has been in beta testing at the 330,000-circulation ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH since November.

Harris announced recent upgrades at the 26,000-circulation SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN in Carbondale, Ill. (adding NewsMaker editorial and upgrading pagination); 79,000-circulation TRENTON (N.J.) TIMES (upgrade server software and pagination workstations), and 437,000-circulation NEW YORK POST (upgrade server hardware and software, and NewsMaker editorial clients).

Harris is on the Web at http://www.harris.com/.

TOM McMILLAN FOUNDATION
A foundation has been created to honor Tom McMillan, editor of ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING magazine who recently was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The foundation is being administered by the National Scholarship Trust Fund of the Graphic Arts in Sewickley, Pa.

Contributions are being sought to finance an industry scholarship for graphics arts students and to establish an annual award for editorial excellence. Donations may be made to National Scholarship Trust Fund of the Graphic Arts, c/o Tom McMillan Foundation, Attn: Kristin Winkowski, 200 Deer Run Road, Sewickley, Pa. 15143.

QUARK INC.
Denver-based Quark, makers of Quark XPress and other publishing tools widely used by newspapers, has announced creation of Quark Enterprise Systems (QES) Inc., an affiliate that will develop products for the catalog publishing industry.

QES will build on Coris Inc., a subsidiary of R.R. Donnelley and Sons that Quark acquired last year. QES will focus on making catalog production more efficient, in part by melding customer database content with the production system. Process automation and content management tools also are slated for development.

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

SYSTEM INTEGRATORS INC.
SII, a publishing systems supplier based in Sacramento, has announced it has begun shipping its new page assembly product Coyote Layout. Early customers for the Windows-based software include the 331,000-circulation MIAMI HERALD and 341,000-circulation DENVER POST.

The pagination solution allows for assembly line page production, with more than one story on a page open for editing at a time, and changes made to text anywhere on the system automatically updated into stories on open pages. Coyote Layout supports third-party page tracking software and its own Macro News Layout software, which permits separate creation of page elements that can be merged easily.

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

WEBMETHODS INC.
webMethods, a provider of e-commerce tools using the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) based in Fairfax, Va., has announced the sale of its B2B e-commerce product to the 759,000-circulation WASHINGTON POST and Los Angeles-based CareerPath.com, in which the Post Co. has a stake.

The newspaper's web site at http://www.washingtonpost.com/ and CareerPath.com at http://www.careerpath.com/ will use B2B to cull information from the web sites of their customers and partners.

webMethods is on the Web at http://www.webmethods.com/.

--30--

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.

Copyright (c) 1999, The Cole Group. All Rights Reserved. This transmission may not be copied, archived or retransmitted without the express written permission of The Cole Group. If you are not a subscriber to COLE'S NEWSWIRE, you have received this transmission illegally.

The Cole Group, P.O. Box 3426, Daly City, Calif. USA 94015-0426. V: (650) 994-2100; F: (650) 994-2108; I: info@colegroup.com.