Serving one's own

One newspaper group has applied networking technology to unite its far-flung family.

By standardizing all its sites on a single WAN-enabled system brand, Cox Newspapers Inc. is completing a nationwide distributed database for both news and ads. Now, sharing content is as simple as peeking into a sibling newspaper's system made by Digital Technology International of Springville, Utah -- even if that system is in Dayton, Ohio.

Without e-feeds, AP or any intermediary, CoxNet papers trade story packages, full-page features and spec ads. With the new Editorial Budget Tool, co-developed with DT, editors groupwide can see story lines as soon as they are created. Over time, accumulated files will appear as one searchable archive.

Advancing technology and retreating prices made possible the daydreams first announced 10 years ago.

"Once, this kind of system was too expensive to consider," said Tony Walker, who wrangles technology for Cox Newspapers. "But now we are able to do a lot of things we weren't able to do before."

Aside from the benefits of cooperation, money savings pop up in interesting places. Take sharing voice and data on the same T1 lines. Otherwise a luxury for small papers, Cox has saved in long-distance charges close to the cost of the data network, Walker said.

Add the savings on AP story retransmission among Cox newsrooms, then factor the equipment efficiencies of WAN access instead of AP DataStream and PhotoStream equipment for Cox's smallest sites. For example, the Cox properties in the North Carolina cities of Elizabeth, Greenville and Rocky Mountain tap photos and text stored on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's database. Look, Ma, no dishes!

That ROI category is tricky, because Cox and AP disagree on how the cooperative's equipment and maintenance savings apply to rate assessments.

"We want to be good AP citizens," said John Reetz, CoxNet's director, but the WAN offers AP "savings that are fair to talk about."

Both sides are still talking.

-- M.J.L.

See also Distributors of features, photos find Web has edge over wires.

From THE COLE PAPERS, April 1999, Copyright © 1999, All Rights Reserved.