Bit bucket

"... This is really a lousy, sneaky, non-consumer-oriented approach. I feel AOL is quickly becoming the Quark of on-line services."
-- Macintouch reader Brian Weiss,
complaining about America Online's tech support line.

New media mavens: At Cox Interactive Media of Atlanta, Keith Greer has been named site manager for OCnow.com of Orange County, Calif. Greer was most recently vice president of development for Virgin Interactive Entertainment, Irvine, Calif. ... At the San Francisco Examiner, Tim Porter has been named editor of the on-line edition, eXaminer.com; previously Porter had been assistant managing editor for news, metro editor and business editor. In previous lives he had edited the late Independent of Richmond, Calif., and been art director of a little-known journalism review, feed/back. ...

Vendor vibrations: At CareerPath.com of Los Angeles, John Brewer has been named general manager of jobs. Previously Brewer was vice president of marketing at Luckman Interactive, an Internet software and content development company in Los Angeles. ... At Digital Art Exchange Inc. of Boston, Rob Heywood has been named project manager; previously he held electronic pre-press management positions at Capital Engraving Co., Dixie Graphics and NEC Inc. ... At Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services of Washington, News Editor Fred Povey has been named managing editor of the KRT News Service, and Special Section Editor Jane McDonnell has been named Managing Editor of KRT Special Sections. Povey joined KRT in 1995 after 24 years at the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, where he was a copy editor, Sunday editor, assistant to the managing editor and news technology manager; in her 11 years with KRT, McDonnell has held the titles of assistant news editor, food editor, KRT Kids editor and deputy editor of special sections. ... At NewsEdge Corp. of Burlington, Mass., Ilene Lang has been named president and CEO of the newly formed subsidiary, NewsPage.com Inc.; most recently Lang was CEO of etility.com, but she's probably best known as the former president and CEO of AltaVista Internet Software Inc. ... At QMedia Distributors of suburban Johannesburg, South Africa, John Lindenberg has been named co-member; previously Lindenberg was the information technology director at Gauteng Newspapers Ltd. of Johannesburg. ... At the Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services division of Tribune Media Services of Chicago, Jan Bunch has been named telemarketing manager, Julie Kaempfer as marketing coordinator for news and features/KRT, and Erin Benington as product manager for KRT. Previously Bunch served as telemarketing supervisor, Kaempfer as sales products coordinator and Benington as financial planning manager for TMS. Also at Tribune Media Services, Michael Fischer has been named New York sales manager for its database and advertising products division, which handles in-line advertising in TV listings; previously Fischer was with Time Inc. where he served as a marketing consultant for strategic partnerships and media planning. Lastly, TMS has named Rich Masterson account executive/newspaper sales for its database products division. Masterson has served as Northeast account executive for TMS' News and Features/KRT division since December 1997. ... At Unisys Corp. of Blue Bell, Pa., four executives have left the Milan, Italy, office where Hermes, WireCenter and DocCenter are developed: Marketing Director Gabriella Franzini, R&D Director Massimo Maggi, R&D Manager for Hermes-WireCenter Ismail Gazarin and R&D Manager DocCenter Stefano Dolci. They say they have started a new consulting group for "innovative publishing solutions." Aine Gibbings has been named Unisys' new R&D manager for publishing solutions (she has been with Unisys for 13 years) while Lodovico de Briganti has been named marketing manager (he's been with the Unisys publishing program since 1990, most recently in the United Kingdom). ... At X-Rite Inc. of Grandville, Mich., Bernard Berg has been named of senior vice president responsible for new business development. Berg joined X-Rite in 1974 and was named vice president-engineering in 1984. ...

Confabs: "Newspapers in New Digital World" will be held May 6-7 in Stockholm, Sweden. For more information, send a fax to (011) 4660 129708. ... AdTech Chicago will be held May 10-12 in the town named therein. For more info, send a fax to (804) 643-8375. ... The '99 Gutenberg Festival will be held May 13-15 in Long Beach, Calif. More information can be had by calling (714) 239-2400. ... Newstec, the biennial newspaper equipment show in the United Kingdom, is May 17-19 in Brighton, England. The details can be obtained by calling (011) {44} (71) 636-7014. ... The Corporate Computing Expo (known as CCX) is May 18-20 in San Francisco. Speakers include Peter Ellis, founder of autobytel.com, and Eric Herr, president and COO of Autodesk Inc. For more information, visit http://www.ccexpo.com/ or call (888) 827-6699. ... The Southern Newspaper Publishers Association's Editors and Publishers Conference is May 23-25 in Atlanta. You can get details on the web site at http://www.snpa.org/ or by calling (404) 256-0444. ... The International Newspaper Marketing Association's 69th annual meeting is May 23-26 in Miami. For more information, visit the web site at http://www.inma.org/ or call (972) 991-5900. ... The Newspaper Association of America's Co-Op Marketing and Sales Conference is May 23-26 in Denver. For more information, call (703) 902-1777 or point your browser at http://www.naa.org/conferences/. ...Ifra-Apple ColorSync Certification Training will be held May 26-28 in Darmstadt, Germany. For more information, send e-mail to leide@IFRA.com or call (011) {49} (6151) 733-6. ... A bunch of us are going to go to Las Vegas to hang out and talk about newspaper technology. The event, of course, is NEXPO '99, this year to be held Monday-Thursday June 14-17 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. For more information, visit http://www.NEXPO.com, the web site of Nexpo's sponsor, the Newspaper Association of America. ...

Errors & Omissions: In last issue's story on the distribution of syndicated material, Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Service President and Editorial Director Al Leeds was identified as "an avowed [Associated Press] critic." That description was supposed to be attached to another source in the story, Joe Sullivan, editor of the Southeast Missourian of Cape Girardeau, Mo. The description got mistakenly switched in the process of editing the article; we regret the error. We also regret incorrectly spelling the name of Theo Fels, a designer with Interactive Bureau, in our story about Adobe InDesign. ... #

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